Adams v. California Department of Health Services

**What Happened** A worker named Adams sued the California Department of Health Services, claiming her employer retaliated against her, discriminated against her, failed to provide reasonable accommodations, broke her employment contract, and wrongfully fired her. After filing her initial lawsuit, Adams tried to file a second lawsuit against the same employer with additional claims that she had originally wanted to include but failed to add to her first case. **What the Court Decided** The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Adams and upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss her second lawsuit. The court found that Adams was essentially trying to re-file the same case twice and that she couldn't use a second lawsuit to add claims she should have included in her original case from the beginning. **Why This Matters for Workers** This ruling shows that workers need to be thorough when filing employment lawsuits. You generally can't file multiple lawsuits against the same employer for the same workplace issues or use a second lawsuit to fix mistakes from your first case. Workers should work carefully with their attorneys to include all relevant claims in their initial lawsuit to avoid having additional cases dismissed.