Alaska Employment Law

E-discovery in Alaska state courts: Friday, Feb. 29th, is the deadline for comments on the proposed changes to Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure 16, 26, 33-34, 37, and 45, concerning electronic discovery.  According to the Rules Clerk, the changes mostly conform the state rules to the Federal Rules.

Posting OAH Decisions:  Chief Judge Terry Thurbon of the state Office of Administrative Hearings has committed to posting decisions (including those from the Human Rights Commission) on-line.  The initial deadline of January 31st hasn’t been met, for a variety of reasons, but there is some reason to believe decisions will start appearing by the end of this month.   Rep. David Guttenberg (D-Fbx) has been helpful in pushing this project. 

Section 1981 HWE claims in the 9th Circuit: In a case where an “independent contractor” doctor filed a § 1981 claim against a hospital, alleging discrimination on the basis of bisexuality and race, the 9th Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of the § 1981 claim.  Section 1981 doesn’t cover sex-based claims, and the racial discrimination wasn’t sufficiently “severe or pervasive.” 

Johnson alleges that he was the victim of only one incident of discrimination over the course of his twenty-eight-month tenure at Riverside, and that he learned indirectly of another. While both incidents were serious and undoubtedly caused Johnson to suffer, particularly the incident in which he was the victim, our precedents require a plaintiff to allege more than two isolated events to establish that he was subjected to a hostile work environment in violation of § 1981.

Johnson v. Riverside Healthcare System, 2008 WL 375214 (9th Cir. Feb. 13, 2008)