Less than a week after Activision Blizzard filed a motion to postpone an ongoing employment lawsuit against it, the Los Angeles County Court denied the request. Activision Blizzard initially made the request following allegations of ethical violations, after it was found that several attorneys at the California DFEH served in a separate EEOC investigation that was settled out of court. Judge Timothy Patrick Dillion denied the application to postpone, though he did not specify his reasoning.
The EEOC investigation was the same one that Activision Blizzard settled out of court for $18 million late last month. In response, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) opposed the settlement, stating that it would undermine its own earlier ongoing lawsuit. Then the EEOC fired back, accusing the department of ethics violations after finding that two of the leading attorneys working for the DFEH previously worked for the EEOC and participated in investigations against Activision Blizzard.
Technically, this is a big no-no for lawyers, as working on two different cases with the same offending parties would be considered a conflict of interest. The EEOC proposed that the two offending attorneys should be “barred from providing work product to, or advising, new counsel in connection with these intervention proceedings.” It also pointed out that, when questioned about the conflict of interest, the two attorneys “disconnected from the call.”
The Los Angeles County Court judge doesn’t seem too fussed about the matter, though. In response, the DFEH stated that Activision Blizzard’s request was “baseless.” And to top it all off, the department stated that it “looks forward” to prosecuting the company. Specifically, the DFEH’s lawsuit centers around allegations that Activision Blizzard violated employee rights and labor laws, in addition to claims of discrimination and sexual harassment. It also accuses Activision Blizzard of destroying important documents relating to the lawsuit.
[Source: Gamesindustry.biz]
