Harassment claims based on sex, not just sexual conduct or language, continue to increase. At the same time, these cases are becoming more complex and difficult to litigate. With the in-depth contributions of seasoned employment law practitioners from across the country, this important book provides a best practices guide for attorneys who litigate cases on behalf of plaintiff/employees and defendants/employers. Focusing on gender harassment and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the book begins by providing a platform for which the practitioner can assess and handle gender harassment and retaliation case. The book supplies guidance for performing a thorough analysis of the elements which must be proven and should be considered throughout the litigation of a claim, including planning and defending depositions.
An overview of the research and legal opinions on sexual harassment in the workplace is presented. Definitions and perceptions of prohibited practices are discussed, as are effective responses by employers and employees. Covered in depth are recent state and federal court decisions.
Gerry Handley faced years of blatant race-based harassment before he filed a complaint against his employer: racist jokes, signs reading “KKK” in his work area, and even questions from coworkers as to whether he had sex with his daughter as slaves supposedly did. He had an unusually strong case, with copious documentation and coworkers’ support, and he settled for $50,000, even winning back his job. But victory came at a high cost. Legal fees cut into Mr. Handley’s winnings, and tensions surrounding the lawsuit poisoned the workplace. A year later, he lost his job due to downsizing by his company. Mr. Handley exemplifies the burden plaintiffs bear in contemporary civil rights litigation. In the decades since the civil rights movement, we’ve made progress, but not nearly as much as it might seem. On the surface, America’s commitment to equal opportunity in the workplace has never been clearer. Virtually every company has antidiscrimination policies in place, and there are laws designed to protect these rights across a range of marginalized groups. But, as Ellen Berrey, Robert L. Nelson, and Laura Beth Nielsen compellingly show, this progressive vision of the law falls far short in practice. When aggrieved individuals turn to the law, the adversarial character of litigation imposes considerable personal and financial costs that make plaintiffs feel like they’ve lost regardless of the outcome of the case. Employer defendants also are dissatisfied with the system, often feeling “held up” by what they see as frivolous cases. And even when the case is resolved in the plaintiff’s favor, the conditions that gave rise to the lawsuit rarely change. In fact, the contemporary approach to workplace discrimination law perversely comes to reinforce the very hierarchies that antidiscrimination laws were created to redress. Based on rich interviews with plaintiffs, attorneys, and representatives of defendants and an original national dataset on case outcomes, Rights on Trial reveals the fundamental flaws of workplace discrimination law and offers practical recommendations for how we might better respond to persistent patterns of discrimination.
"This is much more than a story of a single case. It provides a panoramic overview of the role of work in women's lives, a succinct history of employment discrimination law, and a penetrating analysis of the evolution of our views of sexual harassment in the workplace."--Karen O'Connor, author of Women, Politics, and American Society"After Vinson, nothing was the same. Cochran does a masterful job of setting the case in its historical context and exploring its legal impact."--Judith A. Baer, author of Our Lives before the Law: Constructing a Feminist Jurisprudence "Cochran is an exceptional raconteur and his book is comprehensive, thorough, and wonderfully forward-looking."--Nancy Levit, author of The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law.
Decades before the #MeToo movement, Chinese American professor Jean Jew M.D. brought a lawsuit against the University of Iowa, alleging a sexually hostile work environment within the university's College of Medicine. As Jew gained accolades and advanced through the ranks at Iowa, she was met with increasingly vicious attacks on her character by her White male colleagues. After years of demoralizing sexual, racial, and ethnic discrimination, finding herself without any higher-up departmental support, and noting her professional progression beginning to suffer by the hands of hate, Jean Jew decided to fight back. Carolyn Chalmers was her lawyer. This book tells the inside story of pioneering litigation unfolding during the eight years of a university investigation, a watershed federal trial, and a state court jury trial. They Don't Want Her There is a brilliant, original work of legal history that is deeply personal and shows today's professional women just how recently some of our rights have been won--and at what cost.
This comprehensive text stands alone in addressing sexual harassment from a forensic psychiatric perspective. Sexual Harassment: Psychiatric Assessment in Employment Litigation reviews the law, social science research, clinical experience, and principles of forensic evaluation relevant to the highly adversarial legal arena of sexual harassment litigation. This illuminating guide covers every aspect of psychiatric assessment in sexual harassment litigation: definition/legal history, bias/gender, credibility/malingering, "welcomeness," "reasonableness," causation, and emotional injury and damages. In an area where few training or educational opportunities exist, Dr. Gold presents a structured framework for these evaluations, including case examples that bring this framework to life. No single response or specific psychiatric problem is associated with sexual harassment. Not all experiences of sexual harassment even constitute illegal employment discrimination. The term itself covers a wide range of behaviors, from annoying to traumatic. Likewise, the responses to such events, real or perceived, are broadly diverse. Further, the difficulties and ambiguities that arise at the interface of psychiatry, the legal system, and the social issues raised by sexual harassment make the application of psychiatric knowledge and expertise in such cases uniquely challenging. This work provides invaluable assistance in helping mental health experts meet these challenges while also serving the legal system's goal of adjudicating disputes in the interest of serving justice. It emphasizes that experts should Base their evaluations and testimony on a thorough evaluation of the issues in each case. Acquire the intellectual tools needed, including familiarity with gender issues, the effects of stress and trauma, the scope and effects of sexual harassment, and an awareness of the potential biases that may influence opinions. Understand the scientific basis of their testimony. As the definitive work on the forensic psychiatric aspects of sexual harassment, this work explores and bridges the interface between the law, social science, psychiatry, and employment issues. This classic volume will provide invaluable assistance to psychiatrists and psychologists in formulating credible, well-reasoned opinions in an evolving and controversial area of the law. Other mental health professionals and educators, as well as members of the legal and human resources community, will also find that this in-depth study increases their understanding and appreciation of the complexities and challenges of psychiatric evaluations in sexual harassment litigation.