On Aug. 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit made it rain for plaintiffs lawyers in employment discrimination cases. Actually, more of a gully washer. Check it out in Burton v. Freescale Semiconducter. For employment lawyers, this case is like double frosted chocolate cake: rich and delicious. Here are two yummy bites:
First, the court imposed a “snapshot” approach on employers, limiting them to using in litigation only the reasons they knew at the time of the adverse employment action. Here, the decision to terminate the plaintiff was made in late June 2011, but she was not told of the termination until late July 2011. Why? She needed to stick around to train her replacement. In the interim, Freescale emailed various supervisors to gather evidence supporting the plaintiff’s termination.
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