What Will 2024 Bring?
“Nuclear” Jury Verdicts to Increase Employers have increasingly been on the receiving end of massive verdicts from so-called runaway juries in recent years, and this trend will continue in 2024. A groundbreaking study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce revealed that the jump in eight-figure jury verdicts over the past decade had far outpaced inflation, and this trend reached its peak this past year for workplace trials. Employers need to take compliance more seriously than ever given the risk of massive emotional distress and punitive damage awards. SCOTUS Watch The Supreme Court’s 2023-2024 term is well underway, and we’re watching several cases that will likely impact the workplace, including these four issues: • ADA Accommodation “Tester” Case: The Supreme Court agreed to weigh in on whether a private citizen can serve as a legal “tester” that goes from business to business looking for – and suing for – alleged violations of the ADA, even if they have no intent of patronizing the business. • Lateral Job Transfer in Gender Bias Case: A female police sergeant brought a sex discrimination suit claiming she was transferred to a lateral position in a different district because new leadership wanted to hire a man for her current role. But can a lateral job transfer with no change in pay or benefits be discriminatory? • Limits on Federal Agencies’ Regulatory Power: A longstanding rule known as “Chevron deference” gives the federal agency that administers and enforces laws the power to interpret ambiguities and fill in the gaps – as long as the interpretation is reasonable. SCOTUS has been asked to strike down this deference, which would have profound implications on administrative agencies, including DOL and NLRB. • Proving Whistleblower Retaliation: SCOTUS also accepted a case this term that may clarify the standard for whistleblowers to prove retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
AI Focus
AI Will Continue to Reshape Litigation Fisher Phillips was the first firm to deploy Casetext’s CoCounsel – the AI legal assistant that performs the tasks most valuable to legal professionals in a single, easy-to-use interface – and it has only scratched the surface on what such technology will soon offer. Beyond legal research, document review and drafting, and summarizing large amounts of data, this tech will continue to revolutionize the way litigators perform in and out of the courtroom. But it is also expected to fuel a boom in the number of new case filings against employers as plaintiffs’ counsel – and pro se plaintiffs – will find it easier and more efficient to competently litigate cases.
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