Whistleblower & Employment

"Whistleblower" laws also protect those who don't report originally, but later cooperate with investigations and lawsuits. Two secretaries testified on behalf of a supervisor who was wrongly fired. As a result, they were harassed and emotionally abused on-the-job. Though the secretaries only earned about $25,000 per year, a jury awarded them damages for lost wages and emotional upset. Learn more about this case in the Traverse City Record Eagle.

After the secretary settled the original whistleblower suit (the verdict of $1.1 million) the former employer cancelled her health benefit. We again filed suit — the 3rd suit in this series of cases.

A secretary in the county building inspection department blew the whistle on a supervisor who was probably skimming and was giving permits that may have been fraudulent.

Increasingly, employers are using “contract” workers. When they hire outsiders, however, there is the danger of the unknown. A contract co-worker with a criminal history bludgeoned an employee to death. The employer failed to screen the contractor with a known criminal history.

This is a precedent-setting case. A group of disgruntled voters circulated a memo falsely accusing the supervisor of wrong-doing. Learn more about this case in the Traverse City Record Eagle. | Read the precedent-setting Michigan Supreme Court opinion.

Employers sometimes fire employees with health conditions to avoid paying health insurance. The client in this case had survived breast cancer surgery, but the employer claimed there was no place for her anymore. At trial, the employer offered the long-time employee a job cleaning toilets — and the jury literally laughed out loud.