On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy.” While the title sounds just, the order seeks to roll back critical civil rights protections that have allowed American workers to challenge discrimination for over 50 years. Specifically, the order directs federal agencies…
Attorney Martin Tartre recently achieved a significant victory for employee rights when he successfully argued before the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) to overturn an Investigator’s initial finding of “no reasonable grounds” in a case alleging discrimination and retaliation under the Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act (MWPA) and Maine Human Rights…
On September 18, 2023, the Maine Human Rights Commission considered a case in which an employee alleged that she was denied reasonable accommodation for a pregnancy-related condition and found in the employee’s favor. In Rudolph v. Eastern Maine Healthcare System d/b/a Northern Light Health & Northern Light Regional Health Facilities…
Agreeing to “terms and conditions” of participation has become a near-daily occurrence in the modern world. We communicate assent to terms and conditions when we sign the lease for a new apartment, order food from a delivery site, and click a box stating “I agree to the terms and conditions”…
On April 20, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Maine entered a Judgment in favor of Erin Papkee and against her former employer MECAP d/b/a Milk Street Capital, a real estate investment company in Portland, Maine, and Scott Lalumiere, the primary shareholder and manager of MECAP.…
On January 21, 2022, the Maine Business and Consumer Court entered a Judgment in favor of Anthony Nadeau and against his former employer T.R. Sign Design, Inc. a sign fabrication and installation company in Portland, Maine. The Court concluded that T.R. Sign Design violated the plaintiff’s rights under the Maine…
It is not uncommon for an employee experiencing whistleblower retaliation or discrimination to audio record the employer’s managers, supervisors, and co-workers for later use in a lawsuit against the employer. Employers will naturally request those recordings during the discovery process. Fortunately, Maine courts have long recognized that an employee may…
Can an employer waive the statutory limitation on liability provisions of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA) which limits the amount an employee can recover in a lawsuit for disability discrimination? Put more simply, can a damages cap be waived? The Federal District Court,…
Yesterday, the First Circuit ruled in favor of the Maine Employee Rights Group’s (MERG) client Brian Bell in a disability discrimination case. MERG attorney Allan Townsend argued to the First Circuit that the trial judge gave an erroneous jury instruction during the trial and the First Circuit agreed. As a…
The U.S. District Court of Maine has denied a motion filed by national employment defense firm Littler Mendelson in which Littler attempted to persuade the court to make it more difficult for workers to bring discrimination lawsuits. The case involves allegations that Modula, Inc. discriminated against the Maine Employee Rights…