Writing in these pages twice weekly with a critical editor, I have learned which employment lawsuits are likely of interest to the press. And how media coverage impacts litigation.
I have had too many employer clients over the years concerned that their lawsuits will publicly explode, causing personal embarrassment and brand damage and affecting their customers, remaining employees and even their ability to raise capital. Mostly, I disabuse them with the assurance, “Sorry, you are just not that interesting,” hoping that they are more relieved than affronted.
What cases should employers realistically worry will attract media scrutiny?
Those with salacious facts, high-profile parties, public institutions or those with novel issues and far-reaching impact. Examples of the latter are the Seneca College case, in which the school sought to enforce its vaccine mandate, and the initial dismissal cases determining whether being fired during COVID-19 (when jobs were hard to secure) increased wrongful dismissal damages.
Cases involving private parties and institutions generally will be of little interest to others unless they ring with the zeitgeist, playing on current themes, or are patently outrageous. The Jessica Yaniv case, in which a trans woman took immigrant Muslim aestheticians to the British Columbia human rights commission for refusing to wax her male genitals, fits both those categories.
I often have lawyers...
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