Holly E. DiCesare, associate in the Pittsburgh office of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP is the recipient of the Nora Barry Fischer Award for 2011. The Nora Barry Fischer Award serves to recognize an attorney within the Firm who has given back to the legal profession and the community at large. Ms. DiCesare… Read more »
For 20 years, the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) provided solace and relief to employees who believed their employers discriminated against them because of a real or perceived disability. Through voluminous decisions, courts have defined the contours and limits of individuals defined as disabled under the ADA. Believing the Supreme Court and lower courts overly… Read more »
Background Facts of Case Claimant was a housekeeper for the Pennsylvania State University Behrend Campus. On June 7, 2007, he left where he was working at Perry Hall, to take a one-half hour unpaid lunch break at an on-campus dining facility operated by Employer, where Claimant participated in an Employer-sponsored meal plan. (He would have… Read more »
This afternoon, former LeNature’s Inc. Chief Executive Officer, Gregory J. Podlucky, pled guilty to criminal charges before United States District Court Judge Alan N. Bloch related to money laundering, income tax evasion, and mail fraud. This plea is the beginning of the end of a long odyssey which started in the boardroom and will end… Read more »
Eleventh Circuit Sees Constitutional Problems with Mandated Health Insurance On June 8, a panel of three federal judges heard an oral argument in Atlanta on a constitutional challenge to the Obama administration’s mandated health insurance program. The challenge was brought by 26 state Attorneys General. The central issue involves the law’s mandate that nearly everyone… Read more »
Background Facts of Case Claimant sustained a work injury in October, 2006. He was thereafter paid total disability benefits appropriately under the terms of a Notice of Compensation Payable. Prior to the injury, he worked overtime, and, of course, his overtime pay was included in his average weekly pre-injury wage figure calculation, from which his… Read more »
Background Facts of Case In 1992, Claimant sustained an occupational injury. As a result, he worked at a modified-duty position from around 1996 through 2001, when he was laid-off. Claimant subsequently received total disability workers’ compensation indemnity benefits. Claimant still had certain lifting restrictions residual from his work injury. Then, around 2001, Claimant began receiving… Read more »
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. Sexual harassment of students, which includes acts of sexual violence, is discrimination prohibited by Title IX. On April 4, 2011, the Department of Education (“DOEd”) issued guidelines for colleges and schools to… Read more »
Background Facts of Case Claimant sustained a work injury in 2000. A Notice of Compensation Payable indicated her weekly indemnity benefits rate was $611 based upon an average weekly pre-injury wage figure of $1,045.58. Five years later, claimant was still receiving indemnity benefits payments on this basis. The employer sent her an LIBC-756 form, Employee’s… Read more »