The high-profile case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a Halliburton/KBR employee who claims she was raped by co-workers in a barracks in Iraq in 2005, won’t be considered by the Supreme Court — at least for now.
Lawyers for KBR, who had sought to force her complaint into arbitration as called for by her employment contract rather than being resolved in federal court, withdrew the company’s petition for high court review on March 11. KBR invoked the Court’s Rule 46, which does not require any explanation for withdrawing a case if both sides consent. Parties often withdraw petitions before the Court acts if the case has been settled. But John Vail, lawyer for Jones, said on Tuesday, “There is not a settlement,” and he expects some of her claims to go to trial in federal court May 2011. Vail is vice president and senior litigation counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation in Washington, D.C.
