Fire Law Blog

A Virginia deputy chief who resigned in February after being demoted to battalion chief, has filed suit alleging race discrimination, gender discrimination, and retaliation. Tiffanye Wesley filed suit against Arlington County this week in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

An Arizona firefighter who was terminated following her failure to submit to post-accident testing has filed suit claiming disability discrimination, retaliation, and failure to accommodate. Jennifer Martin filed suit against Rural Metro Fire Department, Inc. in US District Court for the District of Arizona.

A former Providence firefighter who already won a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit in 2016, has been awarded $1.75 million in damages for the retaliatory denial of her application for an accidental disability pension. Rescue Lieutenant Lori Franchina filed suit in 2021 claiming the city’s refusal to grant her pension application constituted discrimination.

In a landmark decision, the New York Supreme Court for Schoharie County has concluded that the New York Department of Health cannot discipline a paramedic through an administrative hearing process, because the Seventh Amendment grants the accused the right to a jury trial. That, in a nutshell, is the holding that our firefighter-attorney colleague, Brad Pinsky, was able to secure.

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for April 14, 2025, Brad and Curt discuss Brad’s landmark victory in Ball v. NY State Health Department; a decision in the wrongful termination case of a Michigan fire chief; an appellate decision in NY ruling that despite a firefighter having cancer, and despite cancer being presumed to ...

A lawsuit filed by former Michigan fire chief has been dismissed by the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Fire Chief David J. Obreiter was terminated in 2022 by Kalamazoo Township.

The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has concluded that despite a firefighter having cancer, and despite cancer being presumed to be job-related, he is not entitled to accidental disability retirement benefits because his disability is not related to cancer.

A deaf man has filed suit against the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services and two DC area hospitals for violating his rights under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Ryan Barrett filed suit today in US District Court for the District of Columbia.

The US District Court for the District of Maryland has dismissed a civil rights and wrongful death suit brought against the city of Annapolis and four Annapolis firefighters over the death of a man in 2021. Renardo Green, 51 died on June 1, 2021 after a struggle with police and firefighters.

A Massachusetts woman has filed suit against the City of Revere, its mayor, city council, fire chief and deputy chief claiming that a requirement that a fire watch be posted at the Seawatch Tower Condominium violates the US Constitution. E. Ivonne Beltran-Silvagnoli filed suit today in US District Court.

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for April 7, 2025, Brad and Curt discuss a bizarre case against a firefighter in Texas accused of hiring a man to rape a woman; a lawsuit over a vehicle search at a Chicago firehouse; a ruling in a North Carolina social media case; a lawsuit filed over ...

A Texas deputy chief has been arrested in one of the most bizarre cases we have ever covered in Fire Law Blog: he is accused of hiring a man to rape a woman, telling the man that the sexual assault was part of a role-play fantasy.

Twenty-three Chicago firefighters have filed suit alleging that searches of their personal vehicles parked on city property violated their civil rights. The suit was filed last week in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Twenty Louisiana firefighters have filed suit claiming the fire department’s pay scales violate state law. The firefighters, all members of Moss Bluff Firefighters, IAFF Local 5501, claim that Ward 1 Fire Department’s method of paying them results in less tenured personnel earning more than senior members, violating Louisiana laws that require equal pay for equal work.

A North Carolina fire captain who was terminated for a series of offensive social media posts, will be allowed to proceed with his federal lawsuit, but the scope of his claims have been narrowed greatly. That was the ruling by US District Court Judge Thomas D. Schroeder in a lawsuit brought by Captain Dustin Jones against the City of Greensboro.

A lawsuit filed by a Colorado fire chief who was terminated by a newly elected district board has been dismissed by the US District Court for the District of Colorado. Fire Chief Erik Holt claimed the Florissant Fire Protection District fired him in 2023 in retaliation for his exercise of his First Amendment rights.

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for March 31, 2025, Brad and Curt discuss a malicious prosecution suit involving a NJ fire department; a disability discrimination suit brought against the Orlando Fire Department; a decision by the NH Supreme Court that firefighters and police officers do not share a sufficient community of interest to ...

A former employee of the Bayonne Fire Department’s fire prevention bureau has filed suit claiming he was falsely charged and maliciously prosecuted by the city because he refused to cooperate with an investigation into another employee. Richard Roszkowski filed suit alleging civil rights violations, malicious prosecution, conspiracy, and violation of New Jersey’s RICO Act.

A district chief with the Orlando Fire Department is suing alleging the city discriminated against her on account of a disability and her gender. District Chief Alissa Baussan, who identifies herself in the complaint as an African American/Black woman, claims that certain duties were taken away from her, and accommodations previously afforded were changed on ...

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has reversed a decision by the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board that found that police officers and firefighters in the Town of Barnstead share a sufficient community of interest that would warrant them being allowed in the same collective bargaining unit.