Articles About Delaware Labor and Employment Law.

On January 29, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously reversed a major Delaware Chancery Court decision that had analyzed the “forfeiture for competition” provisions in a limited partnership agreement using a traditional restrictive covenant reasonableness standard and found them unreasonable and unenforceable.

Stemming a tide of Delaware decisions closely scrutinizing and refusing to enforce non-compete agreements, Delaware’s Supreme Court held that forfeiture-for-competition provisions arising out of a Delaware limited partnership agreement are enforceable, reversing the Court of Chancery’s year-old decision in Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. v. Ainslie, et al. Cantor Fitzgerald, Ltd. P’ship v. Ainslie, No. 162, 2023, 2024 Del. LEXIS 28 (Jan. 29, 2024).

On September 11, 2023, Delaware’s Governor signed House Bill 154 which enacts the state’s comprehensive consumer data privacy statute. Delaware joins  California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia in enacting a comprehensive consumer privacy law.

The law will take effect on January 1, 2025.

To whom does the law apply?

The statute applies to persons

Delaware has published an initial set of interpretive rules in anticipation of the state’s upcoming paid family and medical leave program. The rules provide guidance on determining employer and employee coverage, the duration and amount of benefits available, and employee notice obligations.

Delaware became the latest state to legalize recreational marijuana on April 23, 2023 when the state’s Governor failed to veto two bills that allow for the legalization of marijuana, effective immediately.  Individuals who are 21 years of age and older may possess and use up to one ounce of marijuana. 

On May 10, 2022, Governor John Carney signed into law the Healthy Delaware Families Act, adding Delaware to an expanding list of jurisdictions with a paid family and/or medical leave (PFML) requirement.1  The law creates a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program funded through employer and employee

On May 10, 2022, Delaware Governor John Carney signed the Healthy Delaware Families Act, which provides up to 12 weeks of leave and benefits to covered employees for certain parental, family caregiving, and medical reasons.

Delaware Governor Carney recently issued the Twenty-Seventh Modification: State of Emergency Declaration.  The recent guidelines, which became effective September 4, 2020, contain several sector-specific requirements affecting the health and home care industries operating in Delaware.

Delaware Governor Carney recently issued the Twenty-Seventh Modification: State of Emergency Declaration.  The recent guidelines, which became effective September 4, 2020, contain several sector-specific requirements affecting the health and home care industries operating in Delaware.

The compensability of medical marijuana costs for a workers’ compensation claim turns on an individualized inquiry of whether such treatment is reasonable and necessary, and not whether the use of medical marijuana is permissible under state law, according to the Delaware Superior Court.  Nobles-Roark v. Back Burner, Case No. N19A-11-001

Last month, Delaware Governor John Carney announced that the state would move to Phase 2 of its reopening plan.  Since entering Phase 2, Delaware has announced there would be a delay in progressing to Phase 3, but moved to an expanded rolling Phase 2 reopening.  Delaware also paused certain

Beginning on June 15, 2020, at 8:00 a.m., Delaware will move into the second phase of its three-phase reopening plan following the recent lifting of the state’s stay-at-home order. In Phase 2, retail establishments, restaurants, and other businesses that were previously permitted to reopen at 30 percent of fire occupancy

On August 26, 2019, the Delaware Chancery Court invalidated a California employee’s customer and employee non-solicitation covenant on the grounds that it violated California law. In doing so, the Court rejected the plaintiff company’s attempt to override California law by including a Delaware choice of law provision in the underlying agreement.

The Superior Court of Delaware recently issued a decision confirming the state’s protections for medical marijuana users. On December 17, 2018, in Chance v. Kraft Heinz Foods Co., the court held that the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which prohibits the use and sale of marijuana, does not preempt Delaware’s Medical Marijuana Act (DMMA). While the Chance decision is not unique—both Connecticut1 and Rhode Island2 have recently issued decisions that reached the same conclusion—the decision is noteworthy as Delaware is one of the few states that expressly prohibits the discipline or discharge of employees who use medical marijuana outside of work and subsequently test positive on a job-related drug test absent evidence of on-duty use/possession or impairment. The language of the DMMA was therefore arguably more susceptible to a challenge that a conflict existed between state and federal law. The decision is also the first to imply a private cause of action under DMMA’s employment anti-discrimination provision.

A Delaware state court has held that a medical marijuana user may proceed with a lawsuit against his former employer after his employment was terminated due to a positive drug test result for marijuana. Chance v. Kraft Heinz Foods Co., C.A. No. K18C-01-056 NEP (Del. Super. Ct. Dec. 17, 2018).