A new decision from the state Appellate Court, Paniccia v. Success Village Apartments, Inc., delivers some clarity for employers facing wage claims under Connecticut General Statutes § 31-72. The bottom line? When employees win wage cases, the “costs” they can recover are limited to statutory taxable costs—not every litigation expense they incurred.

The Background:

What a mess.

And I’m not just talking about the cleanup from Tropical Storm Isaias. Hasn’t been much fun without power, internet or reliable cell service.  (I hope everyone is staying safe and gets power soon — my town’s projection was 5-7 days!)

Heck, it’s been tough to even do a blog post about a

Each day of late feels like a week in terms of the firehose of news pouring out each day.

On Monday came news that Italy was going on lockdown.  For a month.

And Connecticut state government rolled out a series of orders that included no travel and limits on meeting sizes to 100

What does it feel like winning the lottery? I don’t know but it has to feel a lot like getting picked for jury duty.

(Wait, am I the only one to get excited at the prospect of jury duty? <grins sheepishly>)

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you may remember that I’ve been called to jury duty before.  Sometimes, it’s been cancelled but back in 2011, I made it all the way to a courtroom — only to be dismissed when I noted that I knew the attorneys at both lawfirms.

Anyways….I’ve been called to jury duty again next week, which gave me the inspiration for this week’s Employment Law Checklist Project post #emplawchecklist. The law is found in a different section than most — and a reminder that not all the laws that employers have to follow are in one neat package.

In fact, this might be one of more confusing employment laws out there.

The key portions of jury duty are actually found in two separate provisions. If your eyes glaze over at the laws, just skip to the summary down below.Continue Reading Employment Law Checklist Project: Protecting the Sacredness of Jury Duty

My colleague, Jarad Lucan (who just won a New Leader of the Law award from the Connecticut Law Tribune!) returns today with a post about the protections employees who testify in court may have. 

Lucan_J_WebMost employers (at least those employers that read this blog on a regular basis) know that it is illegal to

gavelSo yesterday, I said that while the topic of implicit bias was important to understand, I indicated that it was far from settled in the legal context.

One recent case demonstrates why.

The plaintiffs in an age discrimination case in Pittsburgh attempted to introduce testimony from Dr. Anthony G. Greenwald, who has developed the

Having this blog for nearly eight years, it’s fair to say that I’ve covered quite a few topics. But every once in a while, a never-before-discussed issue makes it way to the forefront. Today is one of those days.

My colleague, Gary Starr, has a post today about a recent Connecticut Appellate Court decision