When you’re an employer facing an employment law claim, understanding the potential defenses available to you can be tough.
One option may be to prevail upon the court to limit the waste of judicial resources through repeat or redundant proceedings. To that effect, terms like “res judicata” and “collateral estoppel” may come into play as a defense to repetitive (or even abusive) legal claims from disgruntled employees.
What is res judicata? What is collateral estoppel?
Both res judicata and collateral estoppel are legal doctrines that are designed to prevent a claimant from simply wearing down a defendant through repeated filings. They put a stop to the re-litigation of previously decided matters.
The key difference is that res judicata bars an entire dispute (cause of action) from being litigated more than once, while collateral estoppel prevents just certain, specific issues within a claim from being re-litigated:
- For res judicata to apply, there must have been a final judgment on the merits of the case before, involving the same parties (or their legal equivalents) and the current claim in the new case must come from the same set of facts as the previous one.
- In contrast, collateral estoppel is a little different. Once an issue that was necessary to a judgment in an earlier case has been litigated and decided, the judgment applies even if a second case involves a different claim or legal theory.
For example, if a state court rules in favor of a defendant in a dispute over wrongful termination and alleges discrimination and retaliation, finding that no discrimination or retaliation occurred, the employee couldn’t try to relitigate the claim in federal court a year later based on the same set of facts due to res judicata.
If the plaintiff tries to reassert a claim against their employer under the theory that they suffered retaliation due to whistleblowing and the employer also violated wage-and-hour laws, the defendant employer could argue that collateral estoppel prevents them from re-litigating the idea that they suffered any form of retaliation since that issue was previously decided, thus limiting the scope of their claim.
When you have a legal dispute with a former employee, it’s wisest to seek legal guidance as soon as possible so that you can fully explore your defense options.