Since 2013, the federal government has treated LGBTQ-related workplace discrimination as sex discrimination. However, some fear those protections could end after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Oct. 8 over the firings of gay men and a transgender woman. The...
These days, many people are interested in protesting. Yet it often seems as if the government would prefer citizens to express their grievances in a less disruptive way. Over the course of U.S. history, municipalities and police forces have tried many methods for...
The Rhode Island Supreme Court has significantly limited the scope of expert discovery in Superior Court. Cashman Equipment Corp, Inc. v. Cardi Corp., Inc., No. 2014-284-M.P., slip op. (R.I. June 3, 2016). This case was a construction dispute in which the plaintiff...
The Rhode Island Supreme Court has held that a defendant forfeited his personal jurisdiction defense asserted in his answer by participating in extensive discovery and court-annexed arbitration before moving to dismiss on the eve of trial. Pullar v. Cappelli, No....
Superior Court Presiding Justice Gibney, who manages Rhode Island's state court asbestos docket, has issued a decision denying a summary judgment motion filed by an alleged supplier of floor and ceiling tiles to which plaintiff's decedent was exposed. Pisano v. Alfa...
In a pair of recent decisions in two different cases, Presiding Justice Gibney of the Rhode Island Supreme Court has granted and denied motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction by the same asbestos defendant based on whether the defendant had forfeited its...
In a wide-ranging memorandum and order on several discovery motions, Magistrate Judge Sullivan addressed, inter alia, whether parties in a commercial dispute must produce documents in their "native" electronic format in addition to the PDF form in which they were...
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a comprehensive opinion clarifying many legal issues in sex discrimination claims, including (1) whether a plaintiff can prove discrimination by circumstantial evidence alone; (2) whether a reduction of job...
The First Circuit Court of Appeal has held that Daubert does not require that an expert actually test an alternative design for a product before he can testify that it is safer than the defendant's design. Quilez-Velar v. Ox Bodies, Inc. 823 F.3d 712 (1st Cir. 2016)....
In a suit we brought as cooperating attorneys for the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, Strauss Factor has obtained summary judgment for the owner of firearms seized by a local police department because the defendants failed to provide the...
