Today on NPR, they featured the story about Lily Ledbetter, (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.) and her crusade for equal and fair pay.  Barack Obama will be signing the act into legislation.

As I listened to this story, it reminded me so much of many workers' compensation cases. Lily Ledbetter took early retirement at age 60 because she was reassigned to lift heavy Hummer tires for inspection. Injured workers are often squeezed out of the company by being reassigned employment that they physically cannot do.

Normally, we are pursuing the insurance company to compensate our clients according to the law, but here we have a direct suit against the company. It is appalling to see in this day and age, that such discriminatory practices still exist and that Goodyear appealed the lower courts decision.

There were 16 other male supervisors, and she was the only woman. Lily Ledbetter worked for 19 years as a supervisor and was paid $6,000 less than the newest supervisor.

In 2007, in the Supreme Court, she lost by a decision of 5 to 4.

There seems to be numerous articles about the new law being a boon for trial lawyers. And it's interesting yet again, that instead of looking at the real issue, which is discrimination that some people feel that it's the trial lawyers fault. 

When companies behave unethically, it's the company's fault not the trial lawyer.