civil law Archives - The Poliquin Firm

Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Ron Poliquin — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 19:24:11 +0000

Does Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex, does that include sexual orientation and gender identity? That is the issue coming up before our U.S. Supreme Court in three different cases.

The first case includes a funeral director who was fired after telling her employer that she was transitioning from a male to a female.

In the second case, a county employee was fired after his employer found out he was gay after it was discovered due to his participation in an LGBTQ softball league.

The third case is about a male skydiving instructor who lost his job after trying to reassure a female client that she didn’t need to worry about a tandem skydive with the instructor because he was gay.

Now it’s important to remember that under Delaware state law you are protected based on gender identity or sexual orientation. So, in Delaware even though we don’t know whether or not you are protected under federal law, we do know you are protected, and you’re entitled to sue under state law.

Previously we had employment attorneys representing plaintiffs’ employees. I’ve gotten around this somewhat because you can sue under Title 7 on sexual stereotypes. For instance, in the Price Waterhouse case and Hopkins, the employee was allegedly denied partnership because she did not fit the firm’s image of a proper woman. According to some partners, she was too masculine or not too feminine enough. The Supreme Court ruled that she had made out a claim under Title 7 because it was based on disparate treatment of men and women resulting from sexual stereotypes.

So, there were times when I filed claims on behalf of homosexuals, gays, and lesbians because they did not fit sexual stereotypes. But this is different in front of the Supreme Court now. This will decide once and for all, hopefully, whether or not you can discriminate under Title 7 based on gender identity or sexual orientation. In each of these cases, the lower courts received inconsistent conclusions.

Either way, there are protections currently under Delaware law and some protection under federal law for individuals that get discriminated against on based sexual orientation or gender identity.

If questions or have been discriminated on based on this or any other protected actions or need any questions answered, please come visit me Ron Poliquin DoverLawOffice.com

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Police Misconduct

Ron Poliquin — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 11:39:00 +0000

Ron Poliquin, DoverLawOffice.com your Dover Employment and Civil Rights Attorney,

We are here to talk about some hot topics that mainly involve police misconduct. That was a hot video that we released as far as talking about bad cops. Recently there was a decision that came out by the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, saying flipping the bird, yes giving a middle finger to the police is protected by the First Amendment. Although I wouldn't recommend it, they decided it was protected by the First Amendment.

In this case, it is a civil lawsuit of an individual suing a police officer individually. Basically, what happened is a police officer in Michigan pulls over a driver, cuts the driver break by not giving him or her a speeding ticket. As the police officer is driving away, the individual gives the officer the middle finger. Okay, the police officer pulls this person over again and actually punishes that person for the middle finger by raising the ticket to a speeding ticket, the harsher speeding ticket.

So, what happened in this case though is that the court said the officer could not do that. That could in fact fringe on the driver so the defendants right to be free from unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment as well as her free speech rights under the First Amendment. The court decided that any reasonable officer would know that a citizen who raises her middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment. So, there was clearly no basis for the officer to arrest this driver a second time just solely based on the middle finger.

I'm going to give you a couple of examples on police misconduct that could be civil lawsuits:

Excessive Force is when officers use of force is unreasonable. Whether the use of force would be unreasonable depends on the surrounding facts and circumstances of the case on whether it's excessive force. If the amount of force was reasonable it doesn't matter what the officer’s intentions were. But the reverse is also true if the officer had good intentions, but the use is unreasonable the excess excessive force claim will not be dismissed. So, excessive force means that an officer cannot use force beyond what is necessary to detain the defendant.

False Arrest is basically to be able to prevail on a false arrest claim the victim must show that the arresting officer lacked probable cause. That is facts sufficient to cause a reasonable person to believe that crime had occurred. It is not enough for the facts to be simply incorrect. Even if the officer relied upon facts which later turns out to be false, the officers not liable if he believed those facts were, in fact, accurate at the time.

Malicious Prosecution is basically when a claim asserts that the officer wrongly deprived the victim of the Fourteenth Amendment Right to Liberty. To win on this type of claim you must prove four things.

the defendant police officer commenced a criminal proceeding.
the preceding ended in the victim’s favor, usually, there's no conviction or it gets dismissed.
this is the most important one, that there was no probable cause.
that the proceeding was brought with malice towards the victim.

Usually, what happens in these types of claims, are going to have to show that there's some kind of falsehood. Either that the police officer made up facts for an arrest or that he left out facts in order to arrest and provide prosecution in his case. In any case against a police officer, you must overcome the qualified immunity defense. Meaning in order to win a civil rights claim, an individual bringing a police misconduct claim must prove the actions of the police exceeded reasonable bounds and fringed the victim’s constitutional rights and produce some injury or damages.

These lawsuits can be very expensive, and they can be very hard to prove. In order for you to prove them, you're probably going to need the help of an experienced attorney. So, if you want to get your case evaluated, if you think you've been a victim of police misconduct either excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution or maybe there's something else we're not talking, please see in an experienced attorney. Thank you for your time. Ron Poliquin DoverLawOffice.com

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5 Tips on How to Deal with Bad Cops

Ron Poliquin — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 19:38:00 +0000

Ron Poliquin DoverLawOffice.com,

I am here to talk about dealing with a bad cop in a violation of civil rights and this is my dog Magnus, he is here with me too. Just like there are bad dogs, there are bad cops out there. I represent plaintiffs whose civil rights have been violated by law enforcement. Some examples include unlawful arrest, excessive force, denial of medical care & malicious prosecution.

Now, civil rights violations are some of the toughest to prove.

First, law enforcement and government officials have something called qualified immunity.

Secondly, police officers have a tough job and people tend to want to believe them.

So how do we handle a bad cop? How do you handle a bad cop and handle that situation?

I'm going to give you 5 tips on how to deal with a bad cop, or in that situation, dealing with a bully cop.

Ask for an attorney. This should trigger even a bad cop to know this is somebody that is asserting their right and it should trigger all sorts of rights from there, and you want to speak to an attorney.
Follow the cops orders. You are not going to win an argument, especially against a bully cop; you will never win in that situation.
Do not consent to a search. It is amazing how many times I see somebody that gets pulled over by a cop or gets stopped on the street by a cop and they will readily consent to a search of their body or their vehicle.
Do not give a statement to a cop. Anything you say will be used against you and certainly will and a lot of times, if you're dealing with a bad cop or bully cop, your words are going to be twisted.
Do not resist arrest. Even if you believe it's an unlawful or illegal arrest because in Delaware, even if you resist an unlawful arrest it still can constitute a crime within itself.

Lastly, write a narrative and file a complaint with internal affairs. Do it when your memory is the freshest, right after the event. Collect the names of the witnesses. After you do all these things, seek an experienced civil rights attorney. Even if you have a separate criminal defense attorney. Most criminal defense attorneys are not civil rights attorneys. They are two different things, so you need to get both. One is someone to defend your criminal case and two, if you're going to sue civilly on the civil side, your criminal cases might impact on what you do in your criminal case. Now, on the street during the police stop, the bad cop will always have the upper hand, but in the courtroom, later on, the playing field is level. So be sure to assert your rights, follow the cops orders, write a narrative, get witnesses and most of all, get an experienced civil rights attorney.

That's all and thanks again for listening. If you have any comments or questions about this video, give me a call or leave it in the comments section. DoverLawOffice.com, Ron Poliquin.

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