Law Alerts

In a recent decision, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that a right to continued employment following completion of a probationary period cannot be inferred from silence in an employee handbook or policy statement. In Cromwell v. City of Momence, the court held that a right to continued employment can only be found where handbook or policy

On May 13, 2013, the Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Counselor ("PAC") issued a binding opinion that the use of secret ballots by public bodies violates the Illinois Open Meetings Act ("OMA"). Public Access Opinion 13-006. The issue of secret balloting by the Edgar County Airport Advisory Board (the "Board") was addressed by the PAC through its

In Badsen v. Professional Transportation, Inc, (May 8, 2013). the Seventh Circuit ruled that the District Court correctly concluded that plaintiff, Badsen's, discharge was not disability discrimination, even though the employer, PTI, denied Badsen's request for a 30-day leave to deal with her multiple sclerosis without engaging in the ADA interactive

On May 7, 2013, the New York Appellate Court ruled that the lower court had correctly reversed the discharge of a tenured teacher, Ms. Rubino, who had an otherwise unblemished 15-year career, for making comments on Facebook about her students, including that she, "HATE THEIR GUTS!". Rubino v. City of New York, N.Y. App. Div., No. 03272 (May 7, 2013).

Analyzing the scope and enforceability of an arbitration award, the Illinois Supreme Court in Griggsville-Perry Unit School Dist. No. 4 v. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Bd., et al., 2013 IL 113721 (Feb. 22, 2013), opined that the award was binding on the parties because the arbitrator applied a standard of arbitrariness to the District's decision

The United States Department of Labor ("DOL") has updated many of its model FMLA forms and its FMLA poster to reflect its recently issued rules which implement and interpret the FMLA's military family leave provisions and special leave rules for airline flight crew members. The updated forms are: WH-380-E Certification of Health Care Provider for

On February 6, 2013, the United States Department of Labor issued a Final Rule implementing the amendments to Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (FY 2010 NDAA) and Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act. Military caregiver leave now applies to some veterans The Final Rule expands military

On January 14, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an Administrator's Interpretation clarifying several aspects of the FMLA's application to FMLA leave taken by an employee to take care of an adult child. Who is an adult son or daughter under the FMLA? An employee requesting FMLA leave to care for a son or daughter under 18 years of age must

On January 25, 2013 the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") issued a "Dear Colleague" letter reminding public school districts of their existing obligation to provide disabled students an equal opportunity to participate with non-disabled peers in all extracurricular athletic activities. While this obligation pursuant to Section 504

The Governmental Joint Purchasing Act (the "Act") was amended in late 2012 by Public Act 97-895, and it now allows joint purchases with in-state or out-of-state cooperatives to be conducted by competitive solicitation. Prior to the amendment, the Act required joint purchases to go through a low bid sealed bid process. The Act provides school districts,