As an active employment litigator, I am involved in many interesting cases on a daily basis. The pleadings and synopses here have been collected from actual cases in which I represent one of the parties.

Pleadings are formal papers that are filed with the court or administrative agency hearing the case. They are public documents, unless ordered sealed by the court. The pleadings presented here have been chosen to exemplify claims raised and issues presented in very real cases. Since pleadings should always be carefully drafted in light of the particular circumstances presented in each case, as well as a party's overall litigation strategy, the pleadings presented here should not be adopted for use in other cases. Please e-mail me with any questions.

 

Case Name	Case Number	Court	Synopsis	Pleading	Pleading
Seay v. Federal Railroad Admin.	AT-0752-97-0386-I-1	Merit Systems Protection Board	Appeal	Jurisdictional Statement	Supporting Affidavit
John Costin v. Dept. of Health and Human Services	Case No. AT-1221-93-0670-W-1	Merit Systems Protection Board	Decision of U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board	Motion for Attorneys Fees
Jack Dugan v. Georgia Housing and Finance Authority	Case No. 93-CV-11023	DeKalb County Superior Court (Georgia)	Trial Synopsis	Complaint
Joan Davis v. Michael Espy	No. 1:93-CV-2744-MHS	US District Court	Trial Synopsis	Complaint	Motion for New Trial
Walter Wozniak v. Tidelands Community Services Board		Chatham County Superior Court (Savannah, Ga.)		Complaint
Yvette Berry v. Montgomery Country Club	Civ. Act. 2:98-A-755-N	US District Court Mid. Dist. Ala.		Complaint
Donald Gryder v Dept. of Transportation	98-3411	US Court of Appeals for the federal Circuit	Appeal of MSPB Decision	Appellate Brief
Ronald Foster v. United States		U.S.District Court N. D. Ga	Federal Torts Claims Act	Complaint

 

Jerry Shadinger and Edward Zachary v. David Barram  Jan. 17, 2002. Two white male employees of the U.S. General Services Administration secure a $115,000 verdict for being discriminatorily denied promotion and reassignments.

Cameron Seay v. Federal Railroad Administration. Cameron Seay's career as a computer specialist with the Atlanta Region of the Federal Railroad Administration became jeopardized after he filed two Equal Employment Opportunity Complaints alleging racial discrimination. Management then proposed and sustained his removal, offering him a "Last Chance Agreement," which he accepted. Two months later, when he complained that he was not being given the system access and resources needed to perform his duties, he was abruptly terminated. We filed an appeal with the Atlanta Region of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and on March 11, 1997 submitted Argument and Evidence as to Board's Jurisdiction explaining why the Last Chance Agreement should not deprive the Board of Jurisdiction.

From January 13 through 15, 1997 I tried the case of Joan P. Davis v. Michael Espy, Secretary, US Dept. of Agriculture in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. My trial synopses contains some observations and conclusions about that experience. On January 30, 1997 I filed a Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law or in the Alternative, Motion for a New Trial in that case. Judge Marvin Shoob denied the motion for new trail in mid March, effectively bringing the matter to an end.

In mid November the US Merit Systems Protection Board Issued a decision in the case of John T. Costin v. Department of Health and Human Services in which it found that Mr. Costin had been deprived of a promotion because of whistle blowing activities. Mr. Costin operated an incinerator at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention when he reported to the press that laboratory waste was not being fully destroyed. In late December I filed a Motion for Attorneys Fees. seeking recovery of the fees incurred in the representation of Mr. Costin.

In February 1995 I secured a $150,000 jury verdict in the case of John Dugan v. Georgia Housing and Finance Authority and David C. Pinson. Jack Dugan had been the Finance Director of a Georgia State Government Agency for over twenty years when he learned in 1993 that several managers in the agency had received substantial pay increases in the midst of a pay freeze imposed by the governor. Shortly after he reported this to the Agency's Board of Directors, he was summarily terminated for alleged performance problems. In our complaint, we alleged a violation of the Georgia Whistleblower's Act, and retaliation for exercise his First Amendment right of free Speech, among other claims. Jack waived reinstatement in exchange for $225,000.

On February 18, 1999 we filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Atlanta seeking 1 3/4 million dollars in damages against the U. S. Postal Service for injuries sustained by postal worker Ronald Foster when he was assaulted and shot at by a coworker in the parking lot at his workplace. Our suit, filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleges that the Postal Service was negligent in failing to prevent the assault from occurring.