Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetBrian Royster, a former New Jersey State Police trooper, has been awarded $1.06 million by an Essex County Superior Court jury; however, because of a cap on damages for emotional distress under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) his award will be limited to $860,000. Royster filed his lawsuit against the New Jersey State Police, [...]

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TweetAndrew MacDonald, an award-winning visual effects director, will go to trial next month in Los Angeles Superior Court against Ascent Media Group (AMG). MacDonald alleges that in 2009 he was terminated after he reported to AMG management “open and notorious drug abuse at the office during working hours” by then-AMG creative director Alex Frisch, best [...]

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TweetThe Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) recently issued an opinion in Myers v. AMS/Breckenridge/Equity Group Leasing 1, ARB No. 10-144, ALJ Nos. 2010-STA-7 and 8 (ARB Aug. 3, 2012).  In Myers, the ARB reversed the ALJ’s decision finding the Respondent vicariously liable under a Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) whistleblower complaint as a [...]

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TweetNicholas Woodfield, principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, was recently interviewed by Law360 regarding a recent Federal Circuit decision which held that national security concerns may limit the review of employment decisions made by federal agencies, even by employees who do not have access to classified information. The decision is widely anticipated to [...]

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TweetLast month, in Evans v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, ARB No. 08-059, ALJ No. 2008-CAA-3 (ARB July 31, 2012), the Administrative Review Board (ARB) of the U.S. Department of Labor issued a decision rejecting heightened pleading standards previously announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of a lower pleading standard for whistleblower complaints [...]

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TweetThe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced last week that the first payout from the new SEC Whistleblower Program will be awarded to a whistleblower that helped the government stop a multi-million dollar fraud. The whistleblower will receive nearly $50,000, or thirty percent of the amount collected by the SEC. While the SEC did not [...]

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TweetR. Scott Oswald, managing principal of The Employment Law Group, P.C., was recently selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2013 for his work in the area of Labor & Employment Litigation. Over the course of three decades Best Lawyers has been regarded by both the public and by the [...]

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TweetR. Scott Oswald, managing principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, was recently interviewed by Law360 regarding a reported increase in whistleblower retaliation claims brought by defense contractors.  The Law360 article credited the increased amount of reprisal complaints by defense contractors who to recent changes to federal law and regulations. In addition to “changes [...]

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TweetEarlier this month Clifford Jagodzinski, a former risk manager for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that the financial services firm terminated him in  April 2012 in retaliation for reporting questionable trading practices. According to Jadozinski’s complaint, he informed [...]

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TweetOmaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific Railroad Co. has agreed to pay an employee $38,561.92 in punitive damages for violating the whistleblower provision for the Federal Railroad Safety Act when it retaliated against an employee who reported a work-related injury. An investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that [...]

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