New England Biz Law Update

An employee who claimed his employer fired him because it did not want to cover his disabled wife’s medical expenses could sue the employer for “associational discrimination” under Chapter 151B, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has found.

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

As the economy improves and business litigation heats up, judges are increasingly relying on a quirk of Massachusetts caselaw to invalidate controversial noncompetition agreements. The “material change doctrine,” a unique feature of Massachusetts employment law, is the principle that a ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

A recently issued federal “blueprint” for how colleges and universities should address sexual harassment and assault has critics complaining that the policy’s overly broad definition of harassment could violate the First Amendment.

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

The new regulations under the Affordable Care Act allow employers to offer bigger rewards for workplace wellness programs that incentivize employees to improve their health, but the rules fail to give guidance on whether such programs could run afoul of ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

Just four years out of law school, John “Jack” Mecone is assistant general counsel at the iconic global shoe retailer Clarks. He scored the job just a few months after graduating from Suffolk University Law School in 2009, having previously interned ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s refusal to recognize state same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, employers are scrambling to figure out how far they have to go in changing their employee benefit ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

For most employers, severance agreements are essential tools for ensuring that the end of an employment relationship does not lead to litigation. But a recent lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that an overly broad severance agreement ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

An employer could not enforce a mandatory arbitration provision included in its handbook to block a lawsuit by an employee who claimed she suffered retaliation after requesting maternity leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, a U.S. District Court ...

Tagged with: July 1 2013 issue

A corporate benefits department abused its discretion when it denied a worker’s claim for continued benefits under a long-term disability income plan without addressing substantial evidence that she was disabled, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled. The plan administrator ...

Tagged with: July 1 2013 issue

The employment bar was roiled last year when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that a company policy requiring employees to keep interviews related to internal investigations confidential violated federal labor law. But since then, the agency has been informally ...

Tagged with: July 1 2013 issue