Results for Business Litigation

Can a Church fire me for having a disability, do churches need to follow the Civil Rights Act or Title VII of that act, does a church have to follow the ADA, does a church have to pay minimum wage and overtime (The Fair Labor Standards Act, FLSA), or can a church discriminate based on sex, are just a few of the interesting questions I get as a labor lawyer. Whether a religious institution must comply with Federal Labor Laws is a complex question, which I will try to bring some clarity to.

Under the Florida Health Care Clinic Act, most health care clinics not owned by a licensed physician or practitioner must apply for a license with the Agency For Health Care Administration (AHCA). The licensing process can be quite onerous and requires background checks of owners and certain employees, financial requirements, and inspections.

Hiring illegal immigrants exposes your business to serious liability issues that could end in Federal Charges, but at a minimum result in hefty fines and a shutdown of your business for a period. ICE has had a record year with more than 6,848 investigations in 2018, compared to 1,691 investigations in 2017, this is an over 400% increase. ICE plans, on increasing the number of investigations in 2019. In 2017 1,360 companies were audited for I-9 compliance, compared to 5,981 in 2018, an over 400% increase, and in 2019 ICE has been directed to increase this number even more. In 2017 there were 311 arrests by ICE on worksites, but in 2018 there were 2,304, an over 700% increase.

The cost of doing business successfully today, is that lawsuits are bound to happen, and many of them will be frivolous lawsuits. Routinely frivolous lawsuits are pursued by attorneys who know that even a frivolous lawsuit can be successful against companies who know it is cheaper to pay a settlement than spend years paying attorneys to wind through state court systems. There is a way to fight back, using a trick that puts frivolous lawsuit filers into waters they do not want to swim in, and may not be able to handle.

On Tuesday a Federal Court in New Jersey ruled that the Port Authority would not be subject to a lawsuit for discrimination based on their failure to accommodate a Jewish employee’s request not to work on the Sabbath and Jewish Holidays. This does not mean that employers are free to ignore an employee who asks for accommodations. Religious accommodations have different requirements based on what type of employer you are. Private employers face cases based on an employee’s religion infrequently by comparison to lawsuits filed for failure to accommodate an employee under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).