Representing Employers and Employees

Navigating the nuances of the many federal and state laws affecting employment can be a lot for a business owner to manage. Employment law covers a wide range of rules and regulations governing work hours, pay, benefits, workplace safety, and other employee and employer rights. The federal statutes alone are confusing. There’s the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the statutes enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), including the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. And we haven’t yet mentioned state and local law that may also apply. Baty Otto Scheer’s attorneys not only provide employment law counseling, they help clients—employers and employees as the case may require—sift through the facts and the applicable law when disputes arise.

Employment Litigation

Even though statistics relating to EEOC enforcement suits filed and resolved in the federal district courts over the past ten years (through 2018) show an overall decline beginning in 2012 in the number of suits filed, they also show a slight uptick in filings in 2017 and 2018—likely prompted by the #MeToo movement. The statistics further show the EEOC recovered $53.6 million in the 156 suits resolved in federal district courts in 2018. More than 80 percent of this recovery related to Title VII and ADA claims, nearly equally split. These federal enforcement suits are only part of the employment litigation landscape but do suggest that employers must be ever vigilant in maintaining lawful employment policies and practices.

When litigation cannot be avoided, we represent employers, and sometimes also their employees, in the following areas of the law:

• Discrimination
• Harassment
• Retaliation
• Wrongful termination
• Immigration
• Trade secrets and restrictive covenants
• Wage and hour

Our employment attorneys appear on behalf of clients before federal and state administrative agencies and in federal and state courts.

Representative Experience

• Obtained a directed verdict in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, for a public school district in a claim of sexual assault by a school volunteer.
• Obtained a defense verdict in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, for local city and police officials accused of age discrimination against a police sergeant who sought a position on the police department’s bomb squad.

• Obtained summary judgment in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, for local city supervisors accused of refusing to hire a job applicant because of his support of a city employee’s discrimination claim, upheld on appeal by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.
• Obtained a directed verdict at trial for a railroad in a Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) lawsuit.