The Massachusetts Wage Act, G.L. c. 149, § 148, governs the payment of wages. Employers who fail to comply with the Wage Act may be required to pay an aggrieved employee treble damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, so it’s important to understand what forms of...
On August 29, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit gave an encouraging sign to employers seeking to protect their customer lists from use or disclosure by former employees. In Allstate Insurance Company v. Fougere, the Court held that a customer list...
In NuVasive, Inc. v. Day, the First Circuit recently affirmed a $1.7M award of damages and attorneys’ fees in a noncompete suit brought by a medical device company against one of its former sales representatives. In the appeal, Timothy Day challenged the district...
In a recent decision, Genzyme Corp. v. James C. Melvin, the Suffolk Superior Court (J. Salinger) significantly narrowed the geographic scope of a non-competition agreement from the entire United States to the Metro Atlantic Region in response to a motion by Genzyme...
The importance of careful contract review and communication with counsel were recently highlighted in the case of Dahua Technology USA Inc. v. Feng Zhang, in which the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied an employer’s attempt to...
Under the principle of judicial estoppel, a party to a lawsuit is precluded from asserting a claim that is inconsistent with a prior statement or position. In Thompson v. Gold Medal Bakery, Inc., the First Circuit recently applied this principle in the context of a...
Massachusetts law gives employees the right to place a written statement in their personnel file if they disagree with information their employer has put into the file that has or may negatively affect the employee's qualification for employment, promotion, transfer,...
In a decision recently issued in the case of Maldonado et al. v. Cultural Care, Inc. et al., a group of "local childcare consultants" ("LCCs") brought a class action suit against Cultural Care, a company that places foreign au pairs with host families located in the...
In Knous v. Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., the United States District Court for the District Court of Massachusetts awarded summary judgment to an employer on the employee's claims of unpaid wages and earned vacation at the time of discharge. As a result of...
In the recent Superior Court case of Martinez v. Burlington Motor Sports, Inc., et al., a defendant auto dealership moved to dismiss a commission-based employee's claim for overtime wages pursuant to G. L. c. 151, §§ 1A and 1B, arguing that the Massachusetts...
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