Workplace sexual harassment is a very sensitive, personal matter, but it’s also one that men and women shouldn’t sit back and let happen. You cannot feel powerless to stop it. Sexual harassment in the workplace can have a tremendous impact on your personal life and career, and that’s why it’s so important to file a claim. 

Before you do, you need to understand what happens when you file a claim. Consulting a workplace sexual harassment lawyer is an essential first step.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is an uncomfortable, stressful situation, so why work with a stranger? While it’s possible to do it yourself, it’s a challenging process. You may inadvertently jeopardize your case by missing a crucial deadline or agreeing to a settlement that’s far less than you’re entitled to. When you work with a legal expert in sexual harassment, you gain the following benefits.

Emotional Support Through a Challenging Time

One of the first benefits you gain when you work with a sexual harassment lawyer is that you have someone available for emotional support. Lawyers who specialize in workplace discrimination and harassment have seen many cases and situations, and they can reassure you that you’re not alone. You’re not the first in this situation, and you never have to feel isolated from the rest of the world.

An attorney specializing in sexual harassment in the workplace has the empathy and respect you need in a trying time. Sexual harassment complaints will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions – anger to sadness – and you’ll have someone to help you through each stage of the emotional journey. 

Lawyers often have a network outside of their legal offices, such as therapists or counselors, that they can refer you to if more support is needed.

A Thorough Understanding of Your Rights and Options

Sexual harassment is defined as “unwanted sexual advances or visual, verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” In California, it covers behaviors like:

• Blocking, impeding movements, touching, or other unwanted physical behaviors.
• Making threats as retaliation for saying no or reporting sexual advances.
• Offering benefits, such as a promotion, in exchange for sexual favors.
• Saying derogatory things of a sexual nature about a worker’s body or appearance, sexually-based verbal abuse, or use of sexually offensive or degrading words about someone at work, including customers, employees, and contractors.
• Showing visual items sexually-explicit emails, suggestive cartoons or drawings, sexual gestures, or sexual objects.

Some of the things that people don’t often realize is that FEHA applies to private and public employers, employment agencies, and labor organizers, but those entities must have five or more employees or they’re exempt from the law. Those same businesses with five or more employees must provide annual sexual harassment prevention training programs to all managers and supervisors.

Sexual harassment doesn’t just have to be between a man and a woman. Gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and sexual orientation are all protected under sexual harassment laws.

Because the laws surrounding workplace sexual harassment are extensive, it’s to your benefit to work with a legal expert. 

The lawyer listens to your situation and determines if you have the evidence to file a claim and what aspects of sexual harassment laws were violated. You’ll learn your rights and the deadlines you face for filing the complaint.

Filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) or the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) isn’t the only step. You might have other options, such as mediation with your employer, which will help you avoid court hearings and protect your privacy. The employment law specialist will go over the pros and cons of your different options.

Assistance Building a Strong and Strategic Case

If you do file a complaint, a sexual harassment lawyer helps you gather and preserve evidence. You’ll have an expert sharing the best evidence to collect and how to document that evidence so that it is admissible if you end up in court. It also provides you with the best evidence to have a winning harassment claim.

Your workplace will likely conduct an internal investigation, but they’re not always free of bias. An employment law attorney will talk to potential witnesses and gather evidence on their own to build a solid case. This information is used to develop a legal argument that supports your sexual harassment claim.

The lawyer also builds responses that the defense attorney will likely have. If you try to do this on your own, you may not have the insight into the things the attorney will use against you, and that can be hard to navigate when you’re facing your harasser in court.

An Expert by Your Side Through the Legal Process

If your sexual harassment complaint does go to trial or mediation with your company, it helps to have an expert negotiator on your side. The attorney can act as a go-between to keep you from having to negotiate directly with legal counsel or be pressured into saying things that boost their case. 

You also have a legal team that prepares and files all necessary legal documents. The right paperwork and chain of evidence are crucial when it comes to winning a sexual harassment case. With an attorney taking care of the documents, it builds a strong case. Plus, the attorney is there for you through the legal proceedings, whether it’s mediation or a court trial.

The Compensation You Deserve and Are Legally Entitled To

Your sexual harassment complaint isn’t just to make your employer, boss, co-worker, etc. pay through punitive damages. It should be to provide you with the income you lost when you were too uncomfortable to go to work. If you lost your job over the situation, you deserve back wages and monetary restitution for the mental anguish you experienced. 

If you had to quit your job and are uncomfortable going back, you deserve the future wages you lost. You may not find a job that pays as well as the one you had, and you wouldn’t have had to give that income up had your company made it a priority to stop sexual harassment in the workplace. 

A sexual harassment lawyer knows what you’re entitled to and works hard to get you the maximum settlement. The other aspect is to ensure that the settlement or judgment covers all legal fees. Your attorney will make sure that the amount requested covers legal costs, too.

Shegerian Conniff Is the Legal Team You Need by Your Side

Filing a workplace sexual harassment claim shouldn’t increase your stress. Before you take the first step, talk to the legal team at Shegerian Conniff. We want to make things right for you and fight for your fair treatment. We ease your stress and uncertainty and guide you through each step of the process. Reach us for a free consultation to determine what the next steps should be.