Case Highlights
Justice Finally Served
We met Harshad Desai in 2002 while volunteering at the Guadalupe Street Law Clinic. After countless pro bono hours and nearly a decade of work, we were finally able to secure justice for Harshad! In August 2009, the Labor Commission ruled that the School District discriminated against our client, a substitute teaching applicant, based on his race, national origin, color, and religion and that Harshad had been the subject of racial profiling based on perceived similarities to the 9-11 terrorists. The Labor Commission ordered the school district to place Harshad on the substitute teaching list and compensate him for the average pay he would have received as a substitute teacher from October 2001 to July 2009. It further ordered the School District implement and monitor existing policies to prevent future occurrences of discriminatory activity. You can read the decision and more about Harshad and his case by clicking on the links below:
Labor Commission Order
Man From India Wins Bias Case
Garfield School Distrect Cited for Discrimination, Deception
Overtime Collective Action
The firm secured a settlement in a collective action lawsuit where we represented a group of 300+ employees who were not paid overtime pay for time they spent working at EG&G Defense Materials Inc. The defendant settled the case after the Utah district court judge ruled in our clients' favor affirming that time spent waiting to clear security stations, putting on protective gear, and picking up kits that contain nerve-agent antidotes and masks, should have been paid as time spent working. The settlement was nearly $4.2 million.
Workers to get $4.2 Million for owed overtime pay
Appeals Court Victory
The Tenth Circuit court of appeals recently handed down a favorable decision in a case where our client alleged he was subjected to racial harassment. The implications of this decision go well beyond the case at hand. The rulings of the appeals court will help ensure that employees throughout the Tenth Circuit (which includes Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico) are protected from having to endure working in a hostile environment. The Tenth Circuit's decision is published at: Tademy v. Union Pacific Corp., 520 F.3d 1149 (2008). Read our client's Thank You letter.
Transgendered Employee
In 2004 we decided to litigate a case for a transgendered client who had been terminated from her job as a bus driver for UTA. Although the law on legal protections for employees in similar circumstances was not definitive, Strindberg & Scholnick was committed to helping our client vindicate her rights and we hoped to make good law that would benefit other employees. The case was dismissed by the Utah district court judge and we appealed to the Tenth Circuit court of appeals. The appeals court issued its decision in 2007 and unfortunately upheld the dismissal. However, in so doing, the court did not per se preclude transgender employees from asserting claims under the federal law that makes sex discrimination illegal. We highlight this case even though we were unable to prevail for our client because it demonstrates our commitment to stand up for under-represented employees and to ensure that the law protects all employees from enduring this type of insidious discrimination. For more information about this case, read these articles:
Sex changes leads to lawsuit against UTA
Fired UTA driver gets her day in court
Sexual Harassment Verdict
We represented a nurse who had been raped on the job. We brought a sexual harassment lawsuit on her behalf in federal court under Title VII. During the discovery period, we found out that 4 other women, who worked at the nursing home, had either been raped or sexually assaulted by the same supervisor before our client was raped. Although the employer had several reports of this perpetrator’s sexual misconduct on the job, the employer did nothing to stop the conduct or discipline the perpetrator, which may have prevented the rape of our client. The women testified on our client’s behalf at trial. Erik Strindberg and Lauren Scholnick tried the case, winning the largest jury verdict ever for a single plaintiff in a Title VII case in Utah. After a six day jury trial, and a three hour deliberation, the jury awarded our client $2.5 million in emotional distress and punitive damages.
