Tuesday, July 29, 2014
- DOJ: The Department of Justice issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act Title III regulation to provide closed movie captioning and audio description to give persons with hearing and vision disabilities access to movies (closed movie captioning refers to captions that are delivered to the patron at his or her seat and are visible only to that patron; audio description provides a spoken narration of key visual elements of a movie, such as actions, settings, facial expressions, costumes, and scene changes); theaters would have to obtain and install equipment to transmit closed captions and audio description unless doing so would impose an undue burden
- Law Court: Proposed rule changes include repealing and replacing the Maine Bar Rules; restyling the Maine Rules of Evidence to preserve the substance but present them in the language and format consistent with their restyled counterparts in the Federal Rules of Evidence; and repealing and replacing the Maine Rules for Guardians Ad Litem (all comments due September 12, 2014)
- First Circuit: In reversing summary judgment for seaman’s employer, the court found sufficient evidence supporting claim for “maintenance and cure” (requiring vessel owner to pay cost of food and lodging and medical expenses until seaman reaches maximum medical improvement) where seaman suffered from aplastic anemia while in service of employer, regardless of the cause (right is broader than workers’ compensation)
- US District Court ME: In denying motion for summary judgment, the court held that it was for the jury to determine whether plaintiff was fired because of her age in light of (1) inconsistent discipline, (2) inconsistent application of a first offense termination policy, (3) an inadequate investigation by defendant before termination, and (4) age-related comments by supervisors followed by a prolonged period of managerial harassment
- Bangor Daily: Oakland man who claims he was not hired because of epilepsy files discrimination lawsuit
