The New Jersey Legislature may re-introduce a bill this year to abolish the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and create a judicially administered process to determine regional affordable housing need, provide deadlines...more
On August 9, 2023, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed the Fiscal Year 2024 state budget, which implements a four percent (4%) surtax on income exceeding $1 million. The surtax is effective for tax years beginning...more
A decision by a two-judge panel of the Superior Court this March sua sponte announced that there are different rules for allocating liability among multiple tortfeasors solely based on whether or not a plaintiff contributed...more
On March 18, 2021, the Pennsylvania Superior Court decided Spencer v. Johnson, 2021 Pa. Super. 48 (Pa. Super. Ct. March 18, 2021) in which the court suggested in dicta that the Fair Share Act is only implicated when the...more
Litigators have closely followed a recent decision that has provided needed guidance and has reshaped how asbestos liabilities are apportioned in strict liability cases. On February 19, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court...more
A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision holds that, in strict liability asbestos cases, damages are now to be split per capita among defendants, while bankruptcy trusts may be included on the verdict sheet to bring more...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a tort decision with far-reaching implications for all manufacturers and sellers of products throughout the state. Absent further legislation beyond the 2011 Fair Share Act, liable...more
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax) has introduced a bill to repeal a key provision of Virginia’s right to work law. Since 1947, the law in Virginia has been that no one can be compelled to join a union...more
Due to the groundbreaking nature of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania’s opinion in Roverano v. John Crane, Inc., it is unsurprising that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has now agreed to review the Fair Share Act’s impact...more
This month’s key California employment law cases are from the California Supreme Court and from the California Court of Appeal. Janus v. American Fed’n of State, County, and Mun. Employees, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448...more
In January 2017, the Department of Housing and Community Development published statistics indicating that there is a need, on average, for approximately 180,000 housing units to be developed each year in California, while...more
As we previously reported, in July 2015, the United States Supreme Court decided to consider the legality of “fair share” fees for public employees....more
Recently the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a matter that could severely impact the status of unions. The dispute will determine whether nonunion employees working in the public sector should have to pay partial union...more
In December, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that the Fair Share Act applies to asbestos litigation, meaning that defendants are only responsible for the percent they are found liable. See Roverano v. John Crane, Inc.,...more
As a matter of first impression, the Pennsylvania Superior Court recently held that the Fair Share Act applies to strict liability cases involving asbestos exposure. In Roverano v. John Crane, Inc., 2017 PA Super. 415 (Dec....more
As the ACA audit era approaches, many employers are wondering: what will happen? What sorts of documentation will the IRS request? What industries will be targeted? And what can employers do to prepare? In this post, I...more
A federal appellate court recently held that an employer did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it discharged an employee who had been sleeping at work and falling short of the employer’s performance...more
For many years, unions representing public employees in a variety of states have continued to require employees to pay union dues even if they have an objection to certain political, lobbying, or other activities the unions...more
On March 29, 2016, in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the Supreme Court issued a one-sentence decision affirming, by a 4-4 vote, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in a case challenging the...more
Public sector union officials and their allies will breathe easier as a challenge to the collection of “agency fees” from non-members was rejected by a deadlocked United States Supreme Court earlier this week. In a per curiam...more
In a much anticipated case, an evenly divided U.S. Supreme Court has issued a per curiam order letting stand a Court of Appeals decision that allows unions to collect dues from public employees, even if those employees do not...more
As we previously reported, in July 2015, the United States Supreme Court decided to hear an appeal of a case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding the legality of “fair share” fees for public...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued one per curiam decision on March 29, 2016: Friedrichs v. California Teachers Assn., No. 14-915: Petitioner Rebecca Friedrichs and other public school teachers in California...more
On March 29, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a per curiam opinion in a case on the validity of public-sector “agency shop” arrangements, which permit unions to charge a fee (in order to pay for select...more
The sudden death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, who served on the Court for over 30 years, has touched off a heated political debate over the appointment and consideration of...more