Los Angeles sexual harassment lawyer

California Court: Employer Not Liable for Boss’s Sexual Texts to Employee

April 30, 2023 | by Nassiri Law

There was no question the text messages crossed the line. A drug store supervisor sent them to a subordinate employee – one a picture of his genitals and another of him engaged in a sexual act. But was the employer liable for sexual harassment?

As Los Angeles sexual harassment lawyers, exchanges like this are huge red flags that no employer should ignore. But from a legal standpoint, the question when it comes to employer liability for such actions is: What was the response? Were the complaints taken seriously and investigated in good faith? Did the company protect the supervisor or was their adequate accountability? Was the subordinate’s safety taken into account or were they left to fend for themselves? Did the company retaliate against the reporting employee?

In the recent case of Atalla v. Rite Aid Corporation et al., the California Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District ruled in favor of the employer, finding that the acts that led to alleged sexual harassment stemmed from a relationship that was entirely private and separate from the supervisor-subordinate dynamic. Further, the employer – once notified of the incident – did conduct an investigation, fire the supervisor, invite the employee to return to her job, and offer her paid counseling.

According to court records in the case, the plaintiff, a pharmacy intern, and her boss were close friends. In fact, they had a pre-existing friendship before she started working for the company that had no connection to the job. They had regular, candid, and familiar interactions on a wide range of topics. They frequently talked on the phone and texted with each other – not just about work, but their families, food, other people, pets, exercise, vacations, alcohol, etc. They also had regular, in-person interactions with each other, meeting up for birthday dinners, holidays, lunches, and coffee. The exchange in question was sent by the supervisor to the subordinate outside of the workplace and not during work hours.

Soon after receiving those messages, plaintiff’s employment lawyer sent a letter to the company’s human resources division, alleging sexual harassment and saying she wouldn’t return to work. An attorney for the employer spoke to plaintiff’s attorney, and the incident was immediately investigated. HR met with the supervisor, who confessed to sending the messages. he was suspended, informed of the company’s anti-retaliation policy, and then ultimately fired.

The sexually explicit text messages were undoubtedly inappropriate, but were they work-related? Was there evidence the sender was acting in his capacity as supervisor when he sent them? Continue Reading ›

California Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Spurs Activision Blizzard President’s Ouster

August 6, 2021 | by Nassiri Law

A new California sexual harassment lawsuit has rocked the gaming world, with an avalanche of dissent and claims of “frat boy culture” dominating descriptions of Activision Blizzard, the video gaming company that own games like “Call of Duty,” “Candy Crush” and “World of Warcraft.”

The upheaval and high-profile exit is reminiscent of what our Los Angeles sexual harassment lawyers have noted in the culture of the gaming industry (long noted for its misogyny), but some are speculating this could have reverberations throughout the tech world and even corporate America.

This all started with a California sexual harassment lawsuit filed last month by the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing. According to the complaint, multiple female employees were subjected to gender discrimination, sexual harassment and unequal pay. Company executives reportedly were aware of the harassment and other problems, but failed to take reasonable steps to halt illegal conduct. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, the company retaliated against the complainants. Continue Reading ›

California Sexual Harassment Statute of Limitations Weighed by State Supreme Court

June 22, 2021 | by Nassiri Law

A decision on a California sexual harassment statute of limitations case is expected to be released sometime in the next few months, after the state supreme court heard oral arguments last month. The case involves a Los Angeles California trucking and distribution center, which was successful in winning a summary judgment against two former employees alleging sexual harassment on the basis the statute of limitations for the claim had expired. The plaintiffs are asking the California Supreme Court to reverse.

According to court records, the complaint was filed in the fall of 2017, both plaintiffs alleging the trucking company denied them promotions due to racial discrimination and further that they’d both been victims of sexual harassment.

One of the plaintiffs had been hired at the firm by a staffing agency in the late 1990s. She alleged she was dating an executive VP of the firm, starting in 2014, and this turned into a quid pro quo sexual harassment case. When the VP wanted to advance the relationship, she ended it. After that, she said her her promotions at the firm were blocked, though she continued to work at the staffing agency through 2018. (It should be noted the trucking company was the staffing agency’s only client, so the staffing agency was ultimately dismissed as a defendant after the court found that the trucking company was the one with sole decision-making authority over the staffing agency’s employees.) Continue Reading ›

California Sexual Harassment Alleged by Art Gallery Workers at Fundraisers

May 30, 2021 | by Nassiri Law

An online complaint of sexual harassment endured by workers at art gallery fundraisers that has garnered a groundswell of support, the San Diego Union-Tribune recently reported. Submitted to Change.org as a signature drive, a former attendant at the San Diego Museum of Art alleged the organization routinely hosts booze-fueled fundraisers wherein guests feel free to grope female workers. Rather than protecting their employees, the complaint alleges, officials at the museum blamed staff and refused to consider adoption of policies that would stop them from being subjected to sexual harassment and abuse on-the-job. It seemed the concerns of women of color in particular were outright dismissed.

The complainant reported that they should not have to feel unsafe coming to work as, “We are not nightclub workers.”

Of course, it’s the position of our Los Angeles sexual harassment attorneys that no worker should feel unsafe coming to work for fear of sexual harassment – whether that workplace is in a nightclub, restaurant, office, airplane, tomato field or art museum. Continue Reading ›

Study: Workers who Report Sexual Harassment Likely Targets of Retaliation

November 8, 2020 | by Nassiri Law

A new comprehensive analysis conducted by the National Women’s Law Center and the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund shines a light on several difficult truths about workplace sexual harassment. Key among those: More than 7 in 10 survivors of workplace sexual harassment (nearly three-quarters) suffer some type of retaliation. This aligns with EEOC sexual harassment claims data indicating 72 percent of employees reporting sexual harassment also report retaliation.

As our Los Angeles sexual harassment attorneys can explain, retaliation can include:

Denial of promotions.
Transfer to a less desirable location or assignment with more burdensome tasks.
Receiving harsher treatment from supervisors.
Wrongful termination.
Civil litigation for defamation.

Of those who reported sexual harassment and were retaliated against, more than one-third were terminated. One-fifth had their work or behavior heavily scrutinized or were given bad performance reviews.

The report, called “Coming Forward,” looked at more than 3,300 online requests for legal services nearly three years into the #MeToo movement. It reveals that even as awareness of sexual harassment at work has increased, many victims are still at a distinct disadvantage. Continue Reading ›

9th Circuit Reinstates California Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Judd v. Weinstein

August 15, 2020 | by Nassiri Law

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court ruling in Judd v. Weinstein, reinstating actress Ashley Judd’s California sexual harassment lawsuit against one-time Hollywood power player, producer Harvey Weinstein.

As our Los Angeles sexual harassment lawyers can explain, the complaint stems from a sexual harassment claim under California Civil Code section 51.9. This allows for claims of sexual harassment that occurs between people who have a business, service or professional relationship wherein the defendant holds himself/herself out to be able to help the plaintiff establish a business, service or professional relationship with defendant or third party. These can include doctors, lawyers, estate trustees, landlords, teachers, elected officials, lobbyists, directors/producers or any substantially similar relationship. In order to prevail in such a claim, plaintiff needs to show defendant made sexual advances, solicitations, requests, demands (or engaged in conduct of a sexual nature or hostile based on gender) and the plaintiff has or will suffer some economic loss as a result of that conduct.

Judd’s case appears to fit the bill, but a lower court had dismissed it, siding with Weinstein’s arguments, which were that the traditional power balance might be flipped in some scenarios and that there was not a professional relationship at the time of the alleged harassment. The question of whether the relationship between the two parties was an employment relationship outside the purview of that statute is a question for the trier of fact (the jury). The case was remanded for further consideration.

California Launches Sexual Harassment Complaint Tracking System

January 31, 2020 | by Nassiri Law

As of this month, all state departments in California are required to track all claims of sexual harassment. Now, they will be able to do so using a single streamlined system managed by the California Department of Human Resources.

The system was proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 following an investigation by The Sacramento Bee revealing the state spent $25 million over the course of three years to settle sexual harassment lawsuits against state employees. In many cases, offenders kept their jobs, despite repeated complaints and even as victims were forced to resign and be subject to no rehire clauses if they settled their civil cases. (No rehire clauses are now outlawed thanks to the passage of AB 749 last fall.)

The data tracker went live on Jan. 1, 2020 and cost $1.5 million to launch. Before this, the state had no uniform way of tracking allegations of sexual harassment across its 150+ departments. Continue Reading ›

California Janitor Sexual Harassment Bill Vetoed, Door Still Open for Further Action

December 13, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

A bill that would have expanded California sexual harassment training for janitorial companies and their uniquely vulnerable workers was vetoed by the governor, who urged sponsoring lawmakers to give the state and employers more time to fully implement the 2016 janitorial worker sexual harassment legislation, which is still getting off the ground.

Approval of AB 2079 would have meant that required janitorial firms provide sexual harassment training for supervisors and employees that would extend far beyond watching a boiler-plate video and signing a form. They’d hear from actual survivors of sexual abuse and sexual harassment in the California janitorial industry. They would also be given encouragement and more information on their legal options to hold abusers and workplaces accountable.

Although some of the most highly-publicized accounts of sexual assault and sexual harassment spurred the #metoo and #TimesUp began have been told by employers in elite industries (proving sexual harassment and abuse are pervasive everywhere), Los Angeles sexual harassment attorneys and other worker advocates know janitorial workers, agricultural employees, home health care and hospitality workers are at high risk. The primary risk factor is power disparity between victim and abuser. Women, those earning low wages, people of color, immigrants – all of these individuals start off at higher risk. Immigrants especially can face language and cultural barriers that can lead to fear of deportation, cultural barriers and a misunderstanding of their rights and what will happen if these offenses are reported. Now factor in the isolation, overnight shifts and lack of regulatory oversight that are so integral to the industry, and it’s not hard to see why these employees are at such high risk for abuse. Continue Reading ›

Los Angeles Sexual Harassment Lawyer Outlined New Legal Guidelines for 2019

November 14, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

New laws effective in 2019 will impact how courts in California weigh claims of sexual harassment, and how employers in the state address and take action. A Los Angeles sexual harassment attorney will be able to help you gain a better handle on the changes to these processes and what it might mean for new claims against individuals and employers.

Five new advisory principles are now included in the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), effectively meaning employers are going to face more possibility of liability for discrimination. It’s not that the laws were intended to drum up more possibility of litigation, but rather that they would improve working conditions for women and others vulnerable to sexual harassment on the job or at school.

The specific effect will be that if these five principles are applied by California courts, there will be less likelihood that those claiming to be victims of sexual harassment will have their claims dismissed prior to trial. As Los Angeles sexual harassment attorneys can explain, they will still have the responsibility to prove the harassment was severe or pervasive. However, these new rules will also lessen that burden. Continue Reading ›

California Sexual Harassment Allegations Plague University President

October 13, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

Educational institutions that receive federal funding – including colleges and universities – are bound by federal mandate (specifically, Title IX) to both report incidents of sexual violence and to track patterns of sexual assault, sexual misconduct and other behaviors that may result in a hostile working or educational environment for women – which impacts not only their physical safety and mental/ emotional health, but frequently their financial status and career prospects.

Yet our L.A. sexual harassment attorneys have women on campus victimized time and again – students, adjunct professors, graduate assistants, tenured professors, deans. Universities not only fail to protect them, but in some cases further victimize them with poor policy and failure to follow the law, spurring more than a few California Title IX lawsuits in recent years.

The process by which higher education institutions handle these claims has come under scrutiny as the Trump administration and the U.S. Education Department, headed by Betsy DeVos, has proposed a new set of official policy rules on sexual assault and harassment. As The New York Times reported, if the rules become law, the result will be:

Narrower definition of sexual harassment;
School accountability allowable only when alleged conduct occurs on campus and only when formal complaints are filed first through proper authorities;
Heightened standard for legal standard that defines whether schools acted appropriately (no longer “preponderance of the evidence in determining suspension or expulsion, but rather the evidentiary standard of the school’s choice);
Compelling an informal mediation resolution process.

Meanwhile, more of these claims are filed almost every day. Continue Reading ›