Abbey Adams Logo

Defending Liability, Workers' Compensation, Employment Claims and Appeals Since 1982

  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Phone
  • Home
  • Locations
    • Where We Practice in Florida
    • Where We Practice In Illinois
  • Practices
  • Attorneys
    • David J. Abbey
    • Jeffrey M. Adams
    • Bruce D. Burk
    • Robert P. Byelick
    • Jaime Eagan
    • Jennifer J. Kennedy
    • John D. Kiernan (1947-2016)
    • V. Joseph Mueller
    • Alexis C. Upton
  • Blog
  • Links
  • Contact Us

Employment Law Defense

employment-law

Every business owner is likely aware of the ever changing rules governing the employer/employee relationship. Our attorneys work with large and small employers in preventing employment-related claims by working on the “front-end” to put in place the proper procedures to prevent issues from arising. But, when claims arise, the employment law attorneys at Abbey, Adams, Byelick & Mueller, LLP regularly defend both large and small employers in matters ranging from advice in making day-to-day employment and HR decisions to extensive litigation.

We handle local, state and federal claims in a variety of areas including:

  • Sexual harassment
  • Retaliation
  • Age, race, religion and national origin discrimination
  • Wrongful termination
  • Whistleblower cases
  • ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
  • FLSA claims
  • Wage and hour disputes
  • Non-compete agreements
  • Unemployment compensation

Our employment law practice focuses on preventing employment law claims by providing advice to management and HR as well as training, employment audits and preparation/revision of employment policies and procedures to ensure compliance with local, state and federal laws. We also assist in drafting employment contracts and non-compete agreements.

Our firm also assists employers in responding to investigations by the EEOC, the Florida Human Rights Commission and other agencies charged with enforcement of EEOC laws. We also defend against charges filed by such agencies from the initial charge through the trial and appellate stages.

As most business owners are aware, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified employees who are disabled or perceived to be disabled. A disabled employee must be able to perform the essential functions of their job with or without accommodation. Employers must engage in an interactive process with a qualified employee to determine if a reasonable accommodation can be made for the disabled employee to allow him or her to perform the essential functions of the job unless the accommodation is unduly burdensome to the employer.

We have experience in assisting employers identify whether an employee is “qualified” under the act and whether a reasonable accommodation can be made that is not unduly burdensome. Our attorneys often help guide employers through the interactive process to insure compliance with the ADA to avoid litigation and to defend against allegations of disability discrimination including failure to hire or promote, adverse discipline, termination and constructive discharge.

For more information, please contact Joe Mueller at (727) 821-2080.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Insurance — Commercial property — Coverage — Business losses — Business interruption — All-risk commercial policy providing coverage for “direct physical loss of or damage to” property or “direct physical loss or damage to” property does not insure against losses and expenses incurred by business as result of COVID-19 — Under Florida law there is no coverage because COVID-19 did not cause tangible alteration of the insured properties
  • Insurance — Commercial property — Coverage — Business income losses — Trial court’s finding that policy covering loss of business income due to the suspension of operations caused by “direct physical loss or damage to property” required some tangible alteration to insured property comported with common meaning of its terms and context of policy as a whole — Policy did not cover economic losses insured suffered when it suspended its operations due to COVID-19 pandemic — No error in dismissing with prejudice insured’s petition for declaratory relief and damages
  • Torts — Negligent security — Sovereign immunity — Agency — Limited immunity — Punitive damages — Amendment of complaint — Action brought against company which contracted with county to provide security services and its employee — Defendant company was entitled to limited sovereign immunity under 768.28(5) where county asserted a degree of control over defendant’s employees — Fact that defendant’s employee was working alone rather than side-by-side with county employees did not change level of control county had over defendant employee as evidenced by contract between county and defendant — Absolute immunity under section 768.28(9) applied to defendant employee, but did not apply to defendant company because it is a corporation — No abuse of discretion in denying plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend complaint to add count for punitive damages where record is devoid of evidence that defendant employee engaged in intentional misconduct or gross negligence
  • Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Assignee’s action against insurer to recover payment for construction work performed on insured property following hurricane damage — Court adopts magistrate’s report and recommendation concluding that Section 627.7152(10), Florida Statutes, which repeals assignee’s standing to recover attorney’s fees under section 627.428, does not apply in instant case where both issuance of policy and assignment agreement predated effective date of statute — Whether relevant date for purposes of applying statute is date policy was issued or date assignment agreement was entered into need not be resolved under circumstances — Motion to strike plaintiff’s claims for attorney’s fees is denied
  • Torts — Dog bite — Negligence — Sheriffs — Sovereign immunity — Action alleging deputy sheriff was negligent in handling K-9 that bit plaintiff while attending a public event — Trial court erred in dismissing complaint against sheriff on ground that action was barred by sovereign immunity — Although a plaintiff may not rely on section 767.04 when suing a state agency for a dog bite because it is a strict liability statute, a plaintiff may bring such a suit in common-law negligence — Complaint adequately stated a cause of action for negligence under common law principles — Court rejects argument that plaintiff placed himself in zone of risk by approaching area occupied by deputy and police dog, and that because deputy did not move in proximity to plaintiff there was no zone of risk created by conduct of deputy — Deputy created the zone of risk by patrolling the venue with his K-9 — Whether the deputy was walking around or standing still was irrelevant — Because plaintiff was in a public location he had the right to walk where he wanted, including right up to the deputy, and, unless warned by the deputy to move away, plaintiff had a reasonable expectation that the dog would not bite him — Lawsuit was not barred by sovereign immunity where, although the decision to patrol the public venue with K-9s may have been a discretionary function, the act of patrolling the venue with K-9s was operational

Blog Archives

Footer

The materials available at this website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Use of and access to this Website or any of the e-mail links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship between Abbey, Adams, Byelick & Mueller, L.L.P. and the user or browser. The opinions expressed at or through this site are the opinions of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of the firm or any individual attorney. opens in a new windowAbbey, Adams, Byelick, & Mueller XML Sitemap Index

Copyright © 2022 · Abbey Adams Byelick & Mueller, LLP · All Rights Reserved · Defending Liability, Workers' Compensation, Employment Claims and Appeals Since 1982