Sexual harassment is harassment that you are subjected to specifically because you are a man or a woman or conduct of an express sexual nature. Sexual harassment lawsuit can be devastating for almost any business. Small businesses can be ruined even by the mention of a sexual harassment lawsuit. A court or jury will look at the totality of the circumstances and events surrounding your employment to determine whether or not you have legal grounds for filing a sexual harassment lawsuit. Not every unpleasant event is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment does not include generalized harassment or harassment directed specifically towards you for reasons other then your sex. The law does not require your boss or your co-workers to be nice to you. It is not illegal to be mean or nasty or unfair.

    A sexual harassment lawsuit can only be actionable if it is sufficiently severe and persistent to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment.  The sexual harassment must have the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.  If these elements are present there may be a claim of sexual harassment available against the offending party and can lead to a sexual harassment lawsuit investigation in the workplace.

    Despite some unreasonable perceptions, very few workers who bring complaints about sexual harassment on the job are seeking big money or vengeance. Their goal, at least initially, is to make the harassment stop and to take all practicable steps to see that it stays stopped. It is typically only when an employer offers no fair way to resolve the problem or at least get it fully aired that sexual harassment complaints evolve into sexual harassment lawsuits.

    Indirect costs to employer who tolerates sexual harassment can be high. In addition, employers also risks the high administrative costs involved in EEOC and other agency complaint investigations, as well as the pricey possibility of a successful sexual harassment lawsuit against the company. Harder to quantify but perhaps most damaging can be the corruption of the company name and losing goodwill if the charges go public.

    Furthermore, since many employers hire expensive lawyers at the first scent of legal trouble, the costs of defending a sexual harassment lawsuit are extremely high. And of course, if the harassed employee wins, costs to the employer will be even higher. Several employers have been hard hit with jury verdicts ranging into several million dollars for emotional distress, lost wages, and wrongful discharge.