These days, I see an increasing amount of non-employment attorneys practicing in the area of labor and employment law. It may be because employers believe that the risk of monetary exposure in employment cases is low.
But, every once in a while we get word of a large verdict that reminds us that there can be enormous amounts of money at stake in such cases. To wit, a California jury last week awarded $168 million to a sexual harassment plaintiff - $42.7 million in lost wages and emotional distress damages, and another $125 million in punitives. It is thought to be the largest harassment award in history.
This should be a reminder to all employers of the need to take employee complaints of workplace discrimination seriously, and also to take seriously the lawsuits that later come with many such complaints. Employers should be careful to select expert labor and employment lawyers to represent them in defense of such suits. And, if you are an employer that has an employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policy, make sure that your insurer is assigning cases to actual labor and employment lawyers, and not to personal injury defense lawyers who dabble in labor and employment law.
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