In the Wall Street Journal of November 7, 2011, on the Opinion page, appears an article entitled “Sexual Harassment’s Legal Morass”. In the article, the author states:
“Why settle? One reason is the negative publicity sexual harassment cases often draw when they go to court. It’s particularly tempting for employers to settle before litigation has been filed, which results in a public record.
Then too, settling sexual harassment complaints makes good financial sense for employers in light of the lottery like awarding of punitive damges and unpredictable severe and pervasive standard they face in court. In a California case, a jury awarded and empolyee of a law firm $7 million in punitive damages for sexual harassment despite finding only $50,000 in actual damages.
Defendants who lose sexual harassment cases in court have to pay the plaintiff’s attorneys fees…but are rarely awarded attorneys fees when they win. Even in the best case scenario where an employer avoids trial and prevails on summary judgment, the employer will ring up a legal bill of $100,000 or so.”
If this isn’t a mandate to mediate these type of cases, then nothing is!
Case Closure regularly provides mediation services for sexual harassment complaints.