Order 949265: Legal Issues for Supervisors

Starter List of Key Terms (FYI – will be clarified further in the text)

Protected Class -a group of people distinguished by the special characteristics that has inhibited its progress: race, color, ethnic identification, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, and veteran status.

BFOQ-bona fide occupational qualification-a trait that is integral or essential to the job in question.

Discrimination -with respect to hiring practices, the decisions and actions that deny individuals in protected groups access to employment, advancement, benefits, training, and compensation, permitted to other people in the organization.

Common law -law derived from the British system, basis for our laws.

Statutory law -law made by legislation.

Case law- law or law interpretation based on the reasoning and decisions of the various state and federal courts.

Administrative law- elaborations of statutory law by governmental agencies in order to facilitate enforcement.

Civil law -involves situations where one party has wronged another party. Key Civil Law points:

· Does not involve incarceration

· The plaintiff (injured party) wins if the jury believes that there is more than a 50% probability that the defendant (accused party) was negligent in causing the plaintiff’s injury.

· Punitive damages (see below) can be awarded.

Tort law - laws that deal with situations where one party has caused injury to another party. Tort law is a part of Civil Law.

Plaintiff-the injured party in civil/tort law.

Defendant-the party accused of causing the injury in civil/tort law.

Punitive damages-additional requirements (usually in the form of monetary fines) awarded to the plaintiff, in order to go beyond making the plaintiff whole, by punishing the defendant.

Negligence- Conduct that falls below the standards of behavior established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm.

Reasonable person- the reasonable person is not an average person or a typical person but a composite of the community's judgment as to how the typical community member should behave in situations that might pose a threat of harm to the public.

Disruption of Business – A possible defense for the employer in employee an relations lawsuit, if the employer can prove that the employees actions adversely affected employers ability to do business.