Employment Practice Liability Insurance Defense

Lindner & Marsack, S.C. is approved panel defense counsel for a number of national, regional, and Wisconsin-based insurance carriers that provide Employment Practice Liability Insurance (EPLI) to private-sector, public-sector, and non-profit entities as well as Native American tribes and other entities. Over the years, we have successfully resolved and defended thousands of employment claims in federal, state, and tribal courts and a variety of administrative venues.

Whenever and wherever problems arise throughout Wisconsin and elsewhere, our carrier partners rely on us to represent their insured companies fairly, efficiently, and successfully by digging in to provide a fair assessment, communicating options to move toward resolution, seeking early resolution when possible, and, when that is not possible, aggressively defending employment claims to win or take opportunistic advantage of later strategic opportunities to cost-effectively resolve claims.

In addition to the number of claims we have helped our clients avoid through effective risk mitigation, skilled prevention, and early resolution efforts, we have successfully litigated and cost-effectively defended our insured clients and their carrier partners in a broad spectrum of statutory, tort, and other employment claims including:

• Defending discrimination, harassment and retaliation charges and claims arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal statutes, the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act and municipal ordinances such as the City of Madison Equal Opportunities Ordinance, whether filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Community Commission, the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division, the City of Madison Equal Opportunities Commission, from inception, to hearing, appeal, administrative review actions, and subsequently filed litigation in federal district court.
• Defending wage and hour claims filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Wisconsin Wage Payment, Claims, and Collections Act in state or federal court or arbitration venues.
• Moving to dismiss claims filed in state and federal courts where an insured’s employment arbitration agreement provides for resolution of employment claims through arbitration, or where other flaws inherently doom the complaint.
• Defending retaliation complaints filed under federal, state, ament nd tribal laws and ordinances including, among others, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Wisconsin Health Care Worker Protection Act, and other anti-retaliation ordinances.
• Engaging in pre-filing early mediation efforts to resolve EPLI claims by obtaining the strategic “high ground” factually and legally to ensure a cost-effective resolution of claims as early as possible.

In addition to these efforts, we work with our carrier partners to provide on-site or online training to claim representatives that handle only EPLI claims or in addition to their other claim matters.