Successes 2009
In 2009, the firm again moved to a larger office in a newer building. The number of larger class and collective action cases also grew in 2009 and the result was millions of dollars in settlements. The firm was also establishing itself as a nationwide practice working on cases in state and federal courts in five different states. It was also a year in which the Seventh Circuit and the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of Plaintiffs in cases where the firm had participated in amicus (friend of the court) briefings because they addressed significant points of law.
The following are some of the cases that came to settlement or verdict in 2009. Please note that cases can take anywhere from a few months to several years to reach their conclusions.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
08-3436
(Family And Medical Leave Act)
Our client had been Plant Operating Engineer for a university. He requested intermittent FMLA leave in order to care for his father, who suffers from severe Alzheimer's Disease. A representative from Human Resources denied the requested FMLA leave on the basis of a departmental policy that prohibited more than one person per shift to be on intermittent FMLA leave at the same time. A co-worker on the same shift who had also requested leave was granted the leave because he had seniority over our client. We sought and obtained for our client a court order which required the university to comply with the FMLA.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
06-6470
(Overtime)
Our clients were Polish immigrants who worked in a car body shop. They were denied commissions and not paid for working overtime hours. In what ended up being one of the smallest cases of the year, the Court entered judgment in our clients' favor for a total of $82,689.48.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
07-5449
(Retaliation)
Our client was a high level recruiter for a Fortune 500 company. She complained of sexual harassment by one of the company's most senior employees and was shortly thereafter terminated for allegedly poor performance. This was a highly complex case that was eventually settled to her satisfaction.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
08-0544
(Overtime)
This overtime and unpaid wages case involved the claims of individuals whose job was to review complex insurance policies for clients. At the start of the case, several people refused to join for fear of retaliation. As we often tell clients, companies are generally cautious not to fire people who file such claims to avoid the retaliation cases. Among our first plaintiffs were people who thought they were going to be terminated, but were not, while others who did not join were fired. Because of the size of the class, settlement negotiations were conducted by a steering committee over a three day period. The case was settled to their satisfaction.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
08-3272
(Race Discrimination)
In this remarkable case, an African-American personnel manager was ordered to fire all the African-American employees. We filed the case on behalf of eight employees who has all been fired. Settlement was extremely complex because they had different emotional distress issues. The case was completed in about eight months, and was of course settled to their satisfaction.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
08-5028
(Sexual Harassment)
In this particularly egregious and humiliating example of sexual harassment, young lady working for an automobile dealership was required to remove her clothes and perform sexual favors for the owner. The details are not included here because the case was so bad that the complaint was sealed from the public record. In just over seven months we settled the case to her satisfaction.
United States District Court (N.D.Ill.)
09-1597
(Overtime)
The fastest case to settlement for the year took less than three months. Our client worked for a hotel as a fix-it man. He was working extreme hours, but the hotel had him on a salary, thereby avoiding paying him overtime. We settled the case to his satisfaction.
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