Console Mattiacci Law Files Age Discrimination Suit Against AT&T

The New Jersey Law Journal reported on July 3 that Stephen Console and Laura Mattiacci of Console Mattiacci filed an age discrimination lawsuit against AT&T in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. The lawsuit claims that the company has divided its termination process into multiple steps in a purposeful attempt to conceal discrimination.

“Any AT&T employee who signed an invalid release still may have the right to bring a federal age discrimination claim and keep the severance they were paid,” Console said in a statement. “Under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), in order for a worker to release their ADEA claims, information must be presented by the company in a group layoff that sets forth the ages and job titles of people laid off and not laid off. This is required by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act—it makes sense because this data helps an employee and their lawyer see if there was age discrimination in the terminations. Any release that does not set forth the required information is invalid.”

As the Law Journal noted, Console Mattiaci Law “has had a string of victories in age discrimination suits recently, including a $370,000 verdict on behalf of another AT&T employee in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in January 2016 and a $51.5 million verdict in a suit by an engineer for Lockheed Martin in the District of New Jersey in January 2017.”