Retaliation Claims - the Ticket to Trial

March 2006
Employment Law Notes
A recent case by the Court of Appeals, Division III, highlights the danger we reported on in our November 2002 Employment Law Note: retaliation claims are a plaintiff’s ticket to trial. In Barker v. Advanced Silicon Materials, LLC (ASIMI), the plaintiff brought claims for sex discrimination and retaliatory discharge. The sex discrimination claim was dismissed on summary judgment; the retaliatory discharge claim made it to trial. Along the way, the employer made a series of mistakes that might have proved fatal but for its sincere and good faith belief that it was doing the right thing.