On December 21, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court held that the Whistleblowers’ Protection Act (“WPA”) protects employees who report that their employer has violated “suspected” laws in a case called Janetsky v. County of Saginaw. In a first-of-its-kind ruling, the divided Court in Janetsky concluded that an assistant county prosecutor could bring WPA claims against her supervisor who she believed illegally offered a below-minimum plea deal.
According to a bare majority, whether the supervisor’s conduct actually violated state law was not dispositive, because the WPA protects employees who report actual and suspected violations of the law. Because the assistant county prosecutor presented sufficient evidence to create a question of fact that she suspected that her supervisor violated the law, the Court reversed the lower court’s dismissal of her WPA claim.
In her partial dissent, Chief Justice Elizabeth T. Clement wrote that, whereas the WPA protects a report of a violation or a suspected violation of a law, it does not protect reporting a suspected violation of a suspected law. Chief Justice Clement explained, “In other words, while the statute accepts uncertainty—a violation need only be suspected to be reportable and protected—this should be construed as factual uncertainty, not legal uncertainty.” Accordingly, Chief Justice Clement stated that the Court’s ruling will “allow plaintiffs to receive protection for reporting violations of imaginary laws,” something that the...
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