Employers Continue to Face Difficult and Costly Litigation
- Article Information
- Published on Wednesday, 20 April 2011 18:28
Recent cases, involving both jury trials and settlements, demonstrate that employers continue to face difficult and costly litigation in employment law disputes. Fortunately, in two of the cases described below, the employers obtained a defense verdict, although most likely still incurred significant defense costs. The defense costs of a single plaintiff case, taken through trial, are estimated by some to be in the $300,000 range, for reputable defense firms. Moreover, the significant amount of actual defense costs does not begin to address the immense time commitment these cases require from an employer in preparing a defense. For example, the typical production of documents in a wage and hour case often involves compiling volumes of payroll records that cover significant periods of time. In addition, the depositions of supervisors, managers, human resources personnel, co-workers and many others may be required as part of the lawsuit. Thus, because of the substantial amount of time and expenses associated with employment law litigation, and because of the continuing barrage of these types of case, employers must understand and follow the law, properly train their staff, and document as needed, particularly in regards to personnel matters. Employers should also consider "Employers Practices Liability Coverage" (EPLI). This is a type of insurance which provides coverage for most employment related matters. Some policies even cover wage and hour disputes, which many employers unfortunately must contend with, particularly in regards to misclassification of employees and overtime compensation claims. The following cases, which involve age discrimination, harassment, sexual orientation discrimination, exempt/overtime claims and failure to accommodate disputes are only a small sampling of the employment law cases that continue to plague employers....
