Supreme Court Buttresses Whistleblower Law in Defeat for UBS (1)

The US Supreme Court made it easier for whistleblowers to win suits claiming retaliation under a federal investor-protection law, reinstating a $900,000 jury verdict won by a fired UBS Group AG research strategist.

The justices, voting unanimously against UBS, said the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act doesn’t require whistleblowers to prove they were the victims of intentional retaliation.

A whistleblower who invokes the relevant US law bears the burden to prove that the protected activity was a contributing factor in their firing, but they are not required to make some further showing that the employer acted with retaliatory intent, the court said. ...