Utah Supreme Court Addresses Wrongful Termination Claims Yet Again
In September, 2015 the Utah Supreme Court issued another opinion further clarifying the scope of Utah's judicially created wrongful termination in violation of a clear and substantial public policy claim. We last addressed this claim in August when the Court decided Pang v. International Document Services, 2015 UT 63, where the Court held that a former in-house counsel's complaint did not sufficiently plead a claim for relief for wrongful termination based upon Rule 1.13(b) of the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct - which requires in-house counsel to report suspected unlawful activity to its client - because the Rule did not constitute a clear and substantial public policy (but instead regulates the relationship between a lawyer and his client which the Court somehow found was not a sufficiently clear public interest). In Ray v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2015 UT 83, the Utah Supreme Court answered a certified question from the United States District Court of Utah regarding t...