A jury in Lane County reached a verdict in favor of Liz Carroll in claims against her employer, Franz Bakery, and her supervisor, Jason Bohrer. The jury awarded a total of $345,000 in non-economic damages—$250,000 against Franz Bakery and $95,000 against Bohrer. Bennett Hartman attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of Carroll in February 2024. […]
A judge in King County Superior Court approved the settlement of a class action wage claim brought by Bennett Hartman. The settlement affects more than 20,000 current and former employees of Fred Meyer in Washington State. Attorney Richard Myers filed the class action on behalf of a cake decorator who had wages missing from her […]
A jury in Baker County awarded $200,000 in damages to a former firefighter. Attorney Richard Myers filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jason Bybee in 2023. Baker City employed Bybee as a firefighter and EMT when he contracted COVID-19 from a work exposure. Bybee developed Long COVID and was unable to return to his firefighter […]
Attorneys with Bennett Hartman filed class action lawsuits in Oregon and Washington on behalf of Fred Meyer employees who have been shorted wages since September 2022. The lawsuits allege that Fred Meyer violated wage statutes by knowingly implementing a faulty payroll system. Fred Meyer admits the new payroll system caused pay errors. However, it had […]
Over 7,500 current and former employees of Multnomah County will receive notice of a class action wage settlement. A judge preliminarily approved the settlement and ordered notices to be mailed by August 25, 2022. The settlement ends nearly three years of litigation. In January 2019 Multnomah County switched to a payroll system by Workday, Inc. […]
With the support of the Freedom Foundation, a disgruntled bargaining unit member claimed that his union discriminated against him when it set limits on how he communicated with his steward and refused to file a grievance. ERB rejected the claim, noting that the Union’s requests that the employee document his concerns and limit his communications […]
The employer terminated two employees with no history of discipline for improperly opening up traffic when they believed the worksite had shut down, and after one of the employees had not received a bathroom break for over three hours. The Arbitrator found that although the employees engaged in misconduct, the employer did not have just […]
Social justice advocates in Multnomah County sought to establish a Tenant Resource Program to provide free legal representation to any resident facing eviction, as well as other supports, funded through a small capital gains tax. Counsel assisted in writing the initiative. After it was filed, business groups challenged the ballot title for a variety of […]
People for Portland, a dark money organization, proposed a local initiative to divert resources away from long term solutions to homelessness to a strategy prioritizing emergency shelters, sweeps, and criminalizing homelessness. The Metro Attorney rejected the initiative as violating procedural constitutional requirements and People for Portland appealed. Counsel submitted “friends of the court” arguments on […]
A University violated the contract when it refused to include an across-the-board wage increase in the salary schedule used for the duration of the contract. The wage increase was contingent on the University’s fund balance and was therefore not included in the printed salary schedules. However, the parties agreed that the salary schedules would be updated […]