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National Chain Sexual Harassment Lawsuit | Attorney Jeffrey Cowan

National Chain Pays $435,000 to Sexual Harassment Victim

A Fortune 100 corporation doing business in Southern California had a policy prohibiting sexual harassment that existed only on paper. As a result, for years our client was subjected to crude sexual comments by not only her fellow employees (male and female) but also her managers. When our client reported this conduct - which she found highly offensive - to her supervisors and the company’s anonymous hotline, nothing happened. Once, our client was told by a manager whose fiance also was being sexually harassed that store politics kept him from doing anything. Our client also watched a colleague who complained about sexual harassment receive ridicule, scorn and retaliation from the manager in charge of her store.

When our client finally reported her sexual harassment to managers willing to act, the company not only failed to follow its own procedures but also failed to take the kind of remedial action that either California or federal law requires. Shockingly, the company’s district manager supervising the investigation knew little about how to investigate sexual harassment. This supervisor also rebuffed our client’s efforts to report all of the harassment that had been occurring because this manager assumed (incorrectly) that she had been told about all incidents of sexual harassment.

All of these actions caused our client to become depressed - to the point where she could not work or always care for her three children. Our client also started suffering panic attacks and became suicidal despite being on prescribed anti-depressants and seeing a psychologist. A forensic psychologist we hired confirmed after extensive testing that our client was “legitimately” depressed and not exaggerating or faking her symptoms.

Southern California Fortune 100 Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Lawyer

We sued the company for sexual harassment (California Government Code § 12940(j)) and for failing to prevent sexual harassment (California Government Code § 12940(k)) after it rejected our offer to talk settlement without a lawsuit. After the company got the lawsuit transferred from court to an arbitrator (our client had signed an arbitration agreement), we started deposing key witnesses. Not surprisingly, the managers who had either turned a blind eye or perpetrated sexual harassment lied at their depositions about their actions. As a result, Jeffrey Cowan canvassed Southern California to find witnesses whom we believed would impeach the lying managers. Sure enough, both former and current disinterested employees gave testimony that contradicted the managers (and corroborated our client’s story).

Southern California Attorney Jeffrey Cowan wins Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Two months before trial, the company asked to mediate the lawsuit. After a mediation in San Francisco, the lawsuit settled in June 2009 for $435,000 and a promise from the corporation that its non-managerial employees in the store where our client had worked would be educated about sexual harassment at least once a week for a year.

Contact So Cal Sexual Harassment Attorney Jeffery Cowan

Contact Southern California Sexual Harassment  Lawyer Jeffrey Cowan at (310) 394-1420 if you feel as though you have been the victim of Sexual Harassment.