Annual Survey of Virginia Law: Labor & Employment Law

The full article is available in pre-formatted PDF format under the Additional Reading section.

Published in the Richmond Law Review, November, 2007.

Introduction

This article looks back on important Virginia labor and employment law developments during the past year, including significant case law and legislation. Contract issues continued to dominate state-law employment litigation in Virginia, especially disputes regarding the enforceability of restrictive covenants. Section II of this article is devoted to some of the more significant employment contract cases considered by Virginia state and federal courts this past year. Section III discusses recent Virginia cases in which courts have considered Virginia’s narrow exception to the at-will employment doctrine for wrongful discharges that violate a public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Defamation claims by former employees against their former employers are in vogue, and Section IV concerns two such recent cases considered by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Section V discusses a unique Supreme Court of Virginia case in which an employee pursued an abuse of process claim against her employer. Finally, Section VI provides an overview of significant employment-related legislative activity during the 2007 Session of the Virginia General Assembly.