A federal appeals court has reinstated a constructive discharge claim in an age discrimination case filed by a former city parks worker who said he felt forced to resign because of the verbal abuse he was subjected to by his supervisor.
Lynn Sorenson, who had worked for the parks and recreation department of the City of Caldwell, Idaho, since 2008, said his supervisor subjected him to a working environment that was “hostile, offensive, intimidating and extremely unsafe,” according to court papers in Lynn Sorenson v. City of Caldwell, a political subdivision of the State of Idaho, City of Caldwell Department of Parks and Recreation.

Legalizing recreational marijuana use in Colorado, Oregon and Washington has resulted in collision claim frequencies that are about three percent higher overall than would have been expected without legalization, a new insurance report has found.
The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) report says that more drivers admit to using marijuana, and the substance is showing up more frequently among people involved in crashes

For years, many employers have automatically required drug testing of an employee involved in any work-related accident.  The fact that an accident occurred was justification for the testing, without regard to whether any suspected drug or alcohol use contributed to the accident, and regardless of the severity of the injury or damage.
 
Some states have placed limitations on this practice. For example, in the 2013 California ​

HOUSTON - Disability and workers' compensation fraud cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
People take advantage of a benefit meant to help in a time of need. But government agencies are cracking down -- hiring private eyes -- to catch fraudsters in the act.

​Crystel Riedling, 44, uses her right arm at Disney World again and again. Video taken by undercover agents was just one piece of evidence federal prosecutors used to prove their disability fraud case against her.

Since Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, the issue of employees' rights continues to be controversial. Employers involved in interstate commerce are prohibited from discriminating against applicants.

Understanding How Fast Lawsuit Risks Are Increasing
As more laws are enacted for workplaces, employers face a higher risk of lawsuits. The likelihood of discrimination lawsuits is especially high. In order to minimize this risk, employers need to create a workplace that offers workers equal rights, opportunities, job access, working conditions, job security and opportunities for advancement. They must also strive to create a workplace that is in compliance with federal employment guidelines for mature and disabled workers. During the time period between 1992 and 2004, the number of individual discrimination charges jumped from 72,302 to 79,432 annually. These figures, which were collected by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, include all types of discrimination filings.

​The 2010 Wal-Mart Example
Claims of workplace discrimination hit a record high in 2010. The total number of claims was 99,922 during the fiscal year...

A friend of mine asked me the other day if the cyber-risk threat was a bit of flimflam designed to sell more insurance policies. When I asked him to expand on that most interesting comment he proceeded to compare cyber-risk to the Red Scare of the 1950s when families scrambled to build bomb shelters to protect them from a war that never came. The only ones who got rich back then were the contractors, he proudly concluded.
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​I found his question incredulous given the world we live in, not to mention his peculiar analogy. But realizing he didn’t work in the commerce stream, per se, quelled my impulse to slap him around.
So I shared with him some statistics that sobered him up quickly. I explained that cyber-crime costs the global economy over $400 billion per year, according to estimates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and each year over 3,000 companies in the U.S. have their systems compromised by criminals. IBM reports more than 91 million security events per year. Worse yet,