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As of January 12, 2021, Palm Beach County’s equal employment ordinance has been amended to cover smaller businesses. Companies in Palm Beach County with between 5 and 14 employees (Federal and State civil rights acts normally cover companies with 15 or more employees) will now have to comply with the County’s equal employment ordinance.
Palm Beach County’s equal employment ordinance is also broader than the Florida Civil Rights Act and covers discrimination based on an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, familial status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or genetic information. Employees in Palm Beach County covered by the expanded ordinance will now have an avenue to file a charge of discrimination with the County’s Office of Equal Opportunity (“OEO”). The OEO will undertake an investigation or conciliation efforts in much the
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On December 31, 2020, the Florida Supreme Court announced the amendment of Florida’s summary judgment standard, adopting the more relaxed federal summary judgment standard, in an effort to improve the fairness and efficiency of Florida’s civil justice system and relieve parties from the burdens of meritless litigation.
Summary judgment is the procedural device through which parties may avoid an unnecessary trial by proving to the court that there are no issues of fact to be decided by a jury, only legal issues that can be resolved by the court. Florida’s adoption of the less-restrictive federal standard will likely make it easier for litigants to prevail on summary judgment and thereby reduce the need for burdensome and expensive trials.
Nassar standard of but-for causation in contexts other than FWA retaliation claims. For example, in
Palm Beach County School Board v. Wright, 217 So. 3d 163, 163 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017), the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed an adverse judgment entered against an employer in a Florida Civil Rights Act (“FCRA”) retaliation claim, holding that
Nassar compelled the court to adopt a but-for causation standard. And while before
Chaudhry no Florida court had considered the effect of
Nassar on FWA retaliation claims, the federal courts that had had generally recognized that
Nassar mandated a change in the causation standard.
See, e.g.,
Ramirez v. Bausch & Lomb, Inc., 546 F. App’x 829, 833 n.2 (11th Cir. 2013) (noting that on remand, the district court “may need to consider whether [the plaintiff] ha[d] sufficiently satisfied ‘but for’ causation in [the] case”).