Employees in the health care field are protected from retaliation by their employers for complaining about violations if those violations affect public health or safety.  In fact, the Health Care Worker Whistleblower Protection Act generally provides that an employer in the health care field may not retaliate against an employee based on an employee’s disclosure of (or threat to disclose) his or her employer’s violation of law, if the violation “poses a substantial and specific danger to the public health or safety.”  If an employer does retaliate, the employee can sue the employer for damages, including attorney’s fees.  The reverse also holds true.  If an employee frivolously sues his or her employer claiming retaliation, a court can require that the employee reimburse the employer for attorneys’ fees incurred in defending the case.

Last year, Maryland’s highest court interpreted the Act for the first time.  In that case, a nurse employed by a hospice company complained to her supervisors that her coworkers...