When and Where Should Your Sexual Harassment or Assault Case be Filed?

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When your work takes you on the road it can sometimes create uncomfortable or even dangerous situations between coworkers. When a hotel stay or a trip overseas for work turns into a case of sexual harassment or assault, it may be hard to tell when and where the case should be filed.

Matt Lauer, the Sochi Olympics, and New York Sexual Harassment Claims

In 2017, long-time NBC news anchor Matt Lauer was fired from his position after the company received a complaint raising sexual harassment and abuse allegations against him. Brooke Nevils, a former NBC producer, said that Lauer raped her in a hotel room while they were covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She says that she was too drunk to give consent to his sexual advances, and that she refused his requests for the particular sexual act requested. Ms. Nevils’s attorney said that when the news team returned to New York, pressure and fear that she would lose her job at NBC kept her from reporting the sexual harassment to their mutual employer. Instead, their sexual involvement continued back in the states.

Then in 2017, Nevils and a number of other women began interviewing with various news outlets anonymously to voice their concerns against the host of the Today show and other NBC staples. When the network learned of those interviews, it began its own investigation. Then Nevils’s attorney filed a formal complaint with NBC on November 27, 2019, and two days later, Lauer was fired.

Where Would Lauer’s Sexual Assault Case Be Filed?

Now, Nevils’s story has shown up again — this time in the book Catch and Release by Ronan Farrow. In the wake of recent changes in the way New York handles sexual assault cases, some are asking whether the book is a lead in to a lawsuit. As of yet, no federal or state case has been filed.

Some of that may be because it isn’t clear whether New York would have the authority to hear the case. In general, criminal and civil cases resulting from rape, sexual abuse, or other assaults must be filed in the location where the act occurred. Since the specific rape allegations happened in Sochi, Russia, it would be the Russian authorities who would have to file charges. Even if Nevils were to make a report with the New York police, they would be required to send the information overseas for prosecutors there to deal with.

However, there is some possibility that Lauer’s coercive and non-consensual sexual activity didn’t stop at the U.S. border. If Nevils were to raise objections that her continued relationship with the news anchor resulted in additional sexual abuse here at home, that behavior could still result in a civil lawsuit under the state’s new extended window to file a case.

Can a New York Court Address Nevils’s Claims of Sexual Harassment and Abuse?

Where any potential lawsuits must be filed is only one half of the issue. The question of when that case must be filed is just as important. Every civil cause of action (right to sue) comes with an expiration date. You only have so long after an offense occurs to resolve your issues or take it to court. These limits are called statutes of limitations.

When the victim of sexual harassment and abuse is an adult at the time of the incident, the New York statute of limitations for filing a civil lawsuit against the abuser is just 3 years. In Nevils’s case, NBC made a reasonable response to Nevils’s complaint of sexual harassment by a coworker. However, if it had not, she would only have had a few short months to file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The Sochi incident is said to have happened during the 2014 Winter Olympics. That means under state law, Nevils would have needed to act no later than 2017 under New York law. However, if their relationship continued to meet the criteria for sexual harassment or abuse after the news team returned to the states, Ms. Nevils may still have time to make her case.

Ms. Nevils’s story shows that it can sometimes be difficult to tell when and where your sexual harassment and abuse lawsuit needs to be filed. It also shows how waiting too long to come forward can cut off your right to go to your employer, the EEOC, or the courts to get the remedies you deserve and to protect your professional career.

If you have been the victim of sexual harassment or abuse, don’t wait until it is too late. At Eisenberg & Baum, LLP, we have a team of attorneys who know how to fight back against sex abuse and sexual harassment. We will help you tell your story and get the justice and compensation you need before the time runs out. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

What Happens After a Person is Fired for Gender Discrimination?

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There are many sources for what to do and what can happen after a person is fired because of the biases of his or her supervisor or employer. The appropriate response to gender discrimination and sexual harassment is often to terminate the harasser’s employment. But what happens after a person is fired for gender discrimination is a question troubling advocates and academics across the country.

Universities Wrestle With Teaching Around Sexual Harassment Issues

The #MeToo movement is two years old. During that time, the victims of sexual harassment and gender discrimination have stood up, many for the first time, against their politically powerful abusers. #MeToo and #TimesUp advocates have toppled heavy hitters in nearly every industry, including film-makers, writers, and scientists.

Now, as the dust settles, academics across the country find themselves wondering what to do with the pieces of what is left. Teachers and professors find themselves trying to decide what to do with the works of people who have been accused of gender discrimination and sexual harassment. At the University of California, San Diego, theater major Savanah Lyon circulated a petition calling for the university to cancel its “The Films of Woody Allen” course after the film-maker was said to have assaulted his adopted daughter. At Bowdoin College, Associate Professor Nadia Celis wrestled with what to do about author Junot Diaz’s novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” while the author was investigated for unwanted sexual contact at M.I.T. Similar questions have arisen over Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby”, Chuck Close’s “Big Self-Portrait”, and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s work on astrophysics.

The question for these educators is whether to shun the works of those who have been accused of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, or to teach the works anyway, putting the work in context with discussions of abuse and power. There are advocates on both sides. Ms. Lyon told the New York Times:

“When you teach works like Woody Allen’s you’re normalizing and romanticizing the culture of abuse he was part of. . . . It’s not censorship to be selective when you choose the art you teach.”

Others worry that by erasing the works of people accused of this misconduct, they could accidentally be silencing racial minorities or cutting students off from would-be role models.

Employer Responses to Charges of Gender Discrimination

Employers face similar questions when charges of gender discrimination happen at work. Because sexual misconduct is often an expression of power, those accused often have sway and influence in the workplace. When an employer’s investigation reveals those allegations to be true, the employer has a tough decision to make: whether to fire the person doing the harassment, or the one reporting the abuse.

When the Employer Fires the Wrong Person

State and federal anti-discrimination laws make it illegal for an employer to fire someone because they report gender discrimination, or are involved in an investigation into sexual harassment. But it still happens. That’s why Title VII and the New York Human Rights Act include a separate right to sue for retaliation by an employer. If your boss decides it is easier to fire you than to investigate your claims or deal with your harasser, you have a right to file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the New York State Human Rights Commission, or state or federal court.

What Happens to the Harasser After He or She is Fired

But what if your employer does the right thing and fires the person who harassed you? What happens to them after they leave the position? Most will likely find new employment somewhere else. Some professionals, like sports physician Larry Nassar may lose their right to practice their trade.

Depending on the nature of the gender discrimination or sexual harassment, you may also have individual claims against your abuser. Physical sexual abuse carries serious criminal consequences, as well as civil claims for assault. If the gender discrimination included spreading false rumors about you or damaging your reputation, you may have claims for libel or slander. In New York, if your coworker spread sexually explicit images of you around the office, you could also have a “revenge porn” claim against him or her.

What Employers Can Do to Avoid Continued Gender Discrimination

What happens at your office is possibly more important than what happens to the individual fired for gender discrimination. Especially if you continue within the same working environment, you will want your employer to do more than remove one bad apple. That is why an employer’s reasonable response to gender discrimination often includes company-wide anti-harassment training and improved reporting and investigation procedures. These steps show your fellow coworkers that what happened was not acceptable, and helps to avoid continued gender discrimination from other sources.

At Eisenberg & Baum, LLP, our gender discrimination attorneys look beyond getting a person fired for gender discrimination. We want to help our clients be compensated for the harm they suffered and help to change the climate of harassment and abuse in their workplace. We will identify strategies and push for changes at work to help prevent repeated discrimination. Contact us today to schedule a consultation with one of our attorneys.

New York State Legislators Tighten Sexual Harassment Laws, Again

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Earlier this year, the New York state legislature held its first hearings on sexual harassment and gender discrimination in nearly 50 years. Now Senate Bill 6577, the product of those hearings, has been signed into law. That means tighter sexual harassment laws and better protection for domestic workers, independent contractors, and workers in small businesses.

In this blog post, I will discuss Senate Bill 6577, which tightens sexual harassment laws under the New York State Human Rights Law. I will explain how the new law, together with those that went into effect in January 2019, will expand the definition of employer and protections for non-employee workers, as well as making it easier to prove sexual harassment claims against employers and abusers.

New York Legislature Listens to Sexual Assault Victims

New York state legislators hadn’t taken the time to hold hearings on the state’s sexual harassment laws since 1992. But after a shift in state politics, the issue of sexual harassment and gender discrimination finally pushed its way to the fore. The legislators considered a set of anti-harassment bills designed to tighten sexual harassment laws and provide protections to previously under-served workers. The state senate heard from survivors, advocates, and legislative aides who had worked together to push for sexual harassment reform. At the end of the day, the vote was 109 to 19 in favor of the new law. Senate Majority Leader Stewart Cousins said:

“New York’s outdated sexual harassment laws have silenced survivors for too long. As lawmakers, it is our responsibility to protect survivors and work to improve the standards and culture in the workplace. . . . This legislation works to close loopholes, extend the statute of limitations, and ensure that sexual harassment policies are clear for all employees across the public and private sector. I applaud Senator Biaggi for her unrelenting advocacy on this issue.”

Senate Tightens Sexual Harassment Laws

The new laws, some of which are already in effect and others of which will roll out in 2020, tighten the state’s Human Rights Law against discrimination and sexual harassment. They also put in place protections for some of the state’s most disadvantaged workers.

Changing the Standard of Discriminatory Conduct

One of the biggest changes in the new law is the removal of the “severe or pervasive” standard from discrimination and retaliation cases. This means that employers won’t be able to claim that what happened “wasn’t that big a deal” as long as a reasonable person would have been offended by the behavior.

Shielding Workers from Oppressive Internal Complaint Processes

The law also removes the “Faragher-Ellerth” defense, which means skipping the internal complaint process will no longer doom a plaintiff’s claim. This is especially important in small businesses where the owner is likely close to the person committing the abuse, or may be doing it themselves.

Giving Victims More Time to Come Forward

The law also extends the period when employees can report sexual harassment at work. Complainants now have up to three years to come to grips with what has happened, gather their evidence, and make their case.

Protecting More Kinds of Workers

Workers in the smallest of small businesses and independent contractors often have trouble asserting their rights under established state and federal laws. Limits on the number of employees a company must have to qualify under the law and the definition of what an employee was cut many workers off from the protections available to everyone else. The new law expands protections to domestic workers, independent contractors, and the employees of small businesses, removing exceptions and expanding the definition of an “employer” or “employee” under state law.

Making Multilingual Training a Reality

The law will also expand requirements in the January 2019 state budget that require notice of state-mandated sexual harassment prevention policies in workers’ native languages. The January law said that, in some cases, anti-harassment training must be provided in secondary languages when enough employees of the same ethnic background work at the company. These protections are crucial to protecting immigrants and migrant workers who are often afraid to come forward and report sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Limiting Non-Disclosure Agreements and Arbitration Agreements

The legislature also recognized that larger companies can often pressure their workers into silence through back-door deals and mandatory arbitration agreements. The new law bans the use of mandatory arbitration clauses for all discrimination claims, giving workers their day in court. It also severely limits how non-disclosure agreements may be used, giving workers time to fully read and understand what they are agreeing and removing the pressure to sign away their right to talk about what happened to them.

Giving Discrimination Lawsuits Teeth Through Attorney Fees and Punitive Damages

In addition to making it easier for sexual harassment victims to come forward, the new laws also made the cost of violating them more serious. By requiring judges to award attorney fees to prevailing plaintiffs and allowing them to impose punitive damages, the law keeps larger companies from simply chalking up discrimination claims as a cost of doing business.

Making the Most of New York’s New Anti-Harassment Laws

This set of laws are clearly designed to make it easier for the victims of sexual harassment and gender discrimination to come forward. They make it more costly for employers who ignore their responsibilities to investigate and respond to discrimination at work, and make sure no one falls through the cracks because of the size of the company they work for.

But even with all these protections, proving discrimination and harassment isn’t easy. The sexual harassment attorneys at Eisenberg & Baum, LLP, have decades of experience helping the victims of workplace harassment get the compensation they deserve. We know how to make the most of state and federal laws and can help you build your best case. Contact Eisenberg & Baum, LLP, today to talk to an employment discrimination attorney.