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FRA Crew Size Rule Upheld by 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
August 13th, 2026
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (Case No. 24-11076 [Doc. #97-1]) upheld a regulation of the FRA that requires railroads, with some exceptions, to operate with at least two crewmembers on board unless the railroad can establish that a one-person cre…
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Categories: Rail Law Blog
Shapero Roloff Defeats Railroad's Motion for Summary Judgment in FRSA Whistleblower Case
August 4th, 2026
A federal judge in Chicago recently denied a railroad’s motion for summary judgment in an action brought by our client under the Federal Rail Safety Act (“FRSA”). The facts of the case are familiar to those who work in the railroad industry –…
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Categories: Rail Law Blog
Shapero Roloff Co., LPA Helps Secure $600 Million Settlement in East Palestine Train Derailment
July 31st, 2026
Within days of the February 3, 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern Railway train in East Palestine, Ohio, Neal Shapero and Andrew Thompson, along with attorney Nicholas Amato, filed a class action complaint in the United States District Court for t…
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Categories: Rail Law Blog
U.S. Supreme Court eliminates need to prove retaliatory intent in FRSA cases
February 8th, 2024
The United States Supreme Court held in Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, Case No. 22-660, that a whistleblower bringing a claim under a statute with the same legal standard as the Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA) does not need to prove that the employer…
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Categories: Rail Law Blog
FELA Claim for Deceased Railroad Employee
December 2nd, 2021
Contributor: Andrew J. Thompson
The Federal Employers’ Liability Act (“FELA”), 45 USC §51 et seq., is a federal law that provides damages to railroad employees injured because of a railroad’s negligence during their employment. What happens to a claim under…
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Categories: Rail Law Blog
Ziparo v. CSXT - 2nd Circuit Expands Scope of Protection Under FRSA
October 23rd, 2021
Contributor: Andrew J. Thompson
Cody Ziparo worked as a Conductor for CSX Transportation, Inc. in Watertown, New York. CSXT utilized an “On-Board Work Order System” (OBWO) at this location, which requires the train crew to record tasks into a tablet computer as they are…
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FRSA Causation Standard - Another Federal Circuit Rejects "Inextricably Intertwined"
May 28th, 2021
As I have previously discussed in the Rail Law Blog, the most disputed issue in proving a claim under the Federal Rail Safety Act (“FRSA”) is often whether an employee’s protected activity is a contributing factor in the railroad…
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Qualified Immunity Defense in Police Brutality Cases
June 29th, 2020
In the midst of worldwide protests triggered by the death of George Floyd during an arrest by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the United States Supreme Court recently declined to consider cases challenging the doctrine of “qualified i…
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Congressional Democrats Seek to Expand Nursing Home Inspections Amid COVID-19
May 6th, 2020
Among the groups at high risk for developing a severe COVID-19 infection, none may be as vulnerable, or in a setting so ripe for quick spread than the nursing home population. As you see in our last blog post, industry lobbyists are pushing states to…
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Categories: Common Law Blog
Nursing Homes Want Immunity from COVID 19 Lawsuits
April 28th, 2020
Since the outbreak of COVID 19 at Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, families of nursing home residents have been on high alert. The virus can be easily spread in these facilities, especially considering that too many nursing homes don’t…
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Categories: Common Law Blog