News
February 26, 2010. Following a bench trial, a Polk County judge ordered a local employer to pay damages, including attorney fees and litigation expenses, to an Erbe Law Firm client in a wage violation case. The employee argued that she had accrued vacation that, per her employer's policy, should have been paid out to her after she quit her employment. She made several demands of her employer requesting that it pay her in accordance with its policy. She hired Erbe Law Firm to represent her after the employer ignored her requests. The Polk County court rejected the employer's argument that the former employee had used all of her vacation time before she quit and was thus entitled to nothing.
February 1, 2008. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed the Iowa Court of Appeals and the Iowa District Court for Polk County in Speight v. Walters Development Company. The Speights were the third owners of a home that they allege was defectively constructed. Their case was rejected by two lower courts before the Iowa Supreme Court agreed with Harley and, for the first time, held that later owners of a home have rights against builders in construction defect cases.
September 28, 2007. A Wapello County judge entered a $40,000 judgment in favor of Harley's clients after a trial to the court in a breach of contract case. The court rejected the defendant's argument that Harley's clients lost their right to be paid for their work as drywallers because they did not submit the proper paperwork and had otherwise breached their obligations to the defendants.
September 18, 2007. A Jefferson County judge granted Harley's pretrial motion for summary judgment on behalf of a client in an employment case concerning Iowa's employee drug and alcohol testing statute. Harley sued for wrongful termination after the employee was fired for allegedly failing an alcohol test. The court agreed with Harley that the the results of the employee's alcohol tests did not allow the employer to legally fire the client. The case will now go to trial on the issue of money damages only.
May 22, 2007. A Polk County jury returned a $65,000 verdict for Harley's clients in a construction defect case against their homebuilder. The jury awarded the builder $0 on its counterclaim for breach of contract