If you live in North Dakota, you must have heard of Luke Simons, the lawmaker who was expelled from the House after he was accused of sexual harassment by several staffers and colleagues. This unprecedented decision offers a glimmer of hope for all the victims of sexual harassment in this state. If an important politician can be held accountable for his inappropriate behavior, anyone can. However, if you want justice, you need to do something about that, like talk to a lawyer.

Many victims put up with harassment simply because they’re afraid of the consequences of speaking out and because they don’t know their rights. The fact is you have the right to a safe workplace, free from any kind of discrimination. It’s all written in the law, namely the  North Dakota Human Rights Act which prohibits any type of sex-based discrimination, and that also covers sexual harassment. The law also forbids the employer to take retaliatory measures against an employee making sexual harassment accusations.

When you talk to skilled North Dakota sexual harassment lawyers, they’ll look at all the facts and decide if you do have a case. It’s not that they don’t believe you, but they want to make sure you have enough evidence to make a convincing case. And they can help you get more evidence if need be!

Your rights are protected under the law, but you need to follow the procedure if you want to win your case. It all starts with the way you react to the sexual harassment. Bowing your head or pretending you didn’t hear is not a good attitude. Your harasser can always claim they didn’t know they were out of line. Well-versed employment lawyers will tell you that you need to object to the sexual comments, jokes, inappropriate touching, etc, and make it clear this type of conduct is offensive to you.

If they don’t stop, your next step is to talk to your employer and file a complaint with the Human Resources department. The law requires them to investigate any such complaints and take steps to correct the situation. If they don’t, they can be held accountable and they’ll probably have to pay for that.

If your complaints were ignored, your chosen sexual harassment lawyers will help you take the matter to state or even federal level. You can make a formal complaint with the North Dakota Human Rights Commission or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These agencies will conduct their own investigation and they can mediate between you and your employer. If your employer refuses to collaborate with the investigation or a settlement cannot be reached, you have the right to take the matter to court. An experienced lawyer can help you win fair compensation for all they put you through. You can receive damages for lost wages, as well as for the mental suffering you experienced. And, your employer will also have to cover your legal fees!

Four women drivers have recently filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey Transit company for sexual harassment, after years of abuse at the hands of their supervisor. Their complaint describes the horrific abuse they had to put up with, which went from sexual comments to stalking and very inappropriate touching. The women said the supervisor would follow them around town, board their bus and try to force himself on them, and often exposed his genitals in front of them. When they complained to their bosses, they were ignored. 

If you are in a similar situation, you need to contact a good lawyer. You don’t want to be like these women who suffered for years. Sexual harassers don’t understand they need to stop unless they’re forced to. 

When you talk to seasoned sexual harassment lawyers the first thing they’ll ask is whether you reported the situation to your employer or filed a complaint with the HR. According to the law, you need to do that, giving your employer a chance to put things right. Clearly, the New Jersey Transit didn’t do anything. Actually, the four women accuse NJ Transit of  creating “a culture of fear and intimidation” by protecting their supervisor. 

The next step is to file a complaint with a state or federal authority. New Jersey employees can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights. 

Employment lawyers can explain how to formulate your complaint and what are the two types of sexual harassment in the workplace, as described by the EEOC. The tragic story of the four women drivers amounts to a quid pro quo case, as their harasser was their supervisor. This explains why it took them so long to file a lawsuit. In most quid pro quo cases, the victims are afraid to speak out because their supervisor has the power to fire them or write a bad report on them, compromising their chances at a promotion or a pay raise. When you have a family and bills to pay, you cannot risk being sacked so many put up with the abuse. 

The second type of sexual harassment refers to the creation of a hostile environment. This happens when one or more workmates engage in verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Inappropriate comments on someone’s looks, making sexual gestures or noises in their presence or bombarding them with obscene messages amount to sexual harassment if the incidents are of a pervasive nature. According to the lawsuit against NJ transit, the supervisor once sent one of the women a video of himself masturbating. Receiving such a message can be extremely traumatic, but make sure to save it to your device. Skilled New Jersey sexual harassment lawyers will see to it that any such message is passed on to the EEOC along with your formal complaint. 

As for the damages you are entitled to, that depends on the severity of your harassment. As it turned out, the NJ Transit supervisor had been named in a similar complaint more than a decade ago, when he worked for Hudson County jail system. In that case, the plaintiffs were awarded $2 million in compensatory damages. 

Maine was the first state in the U.S. to require sexual harassment training, back in 1991. All businesses in the state with 15 or more employees need to provide training to both supervisors and employees on what constitutes sexual harassment and how to quickly address such situations should they occur in their company. Also, Maine employers are encouraged to put in place a clear procedure for reporting such cases, a procedure that all employees should be aware of.

Thirty years later, there are still plenty of sexual cases in the state, even though any type of discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation is clearly prohibited under the Maine Human Rights Act. With all these provisions in place, no employee, man or woman, should have to endure sexual harassment in the workplace. There’s only one way to make it stop and that’s getting in touch with a lawyer who specializes in such cases.

First of all, your lawyer will examine the facts to see if they amount to sexual harassment. According to the law, any unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, as well as other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment. There’s one condition, though. You need to prove that this conduct was pervasive enough to cause you significant mental anguish and impact your job performance.

Sexual harassment lawyers can help you prove that your workmates’ crude jokes, sexual innuendos or sexual overtures happened often enough to make it impossible for you to function normally in such a hostile environment. You’ll need to document those incidents as best you can. Keep a journal of all incidents of a sexual nature, take pictures of any offensive images your harasser might display around the office and save every offensive text message, image or video sent to you.

Make a list of those who engage in this type of conduct and of those who did not. Employment lawyers taking up your case will probably want to talk to the latter. Under Maine law, anyone testifying in a sexual harassment lawsuit is protected against retaliation.

In quid pro quo cases, when a supervisor solicits sexual favors from an employee, misconduct might be even harder to prove. Most of these people are smart enough to make sure there are no witnesses when they proposition you for sex. Still, an employee refusing to submit to such outrageous demands can find other ways to prove they were discriminated against because they refused their supervisor’s sexual advances. For instance, if you are overlooked when it comes to a pay raise or a promotion you were entitled to, that can be used to substantiate your claim. Also, if you are forced to quit your job you can explain everything that happened to you in your complaint. Often enough, when one employee decides to fight back against their harassers other coworkers will come forth to tell their own story.

Maine sexual harassment lawyers will guide you through the process of formulating and filing your complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission,which will conduct its own investigation and mediate the dispute. They can award you damages for all you’ve suffered, including lost wages and legal fees.

A jury in Iowa has recently awarded $790,000 in damages to a DHS employee who accused the department of fostering sexual harassment. The woman, Tracy White, stated in her lawsuit that she had been subjected to persistent sexual harassment and discriminated against ever since she joined the Department of Human Services in 2000. According to her, several managers and colleagues made lewd comments or resorted to inappropriate touching over the years. She also said promotion decisions were based on perceived attractiveness criteria, rather than competence and job performance.

Following such a landmark trial, more sexual harassment victims will undoubtedly feel empowered and will decide to take action. The first thing you need to do is contact a lawyer and see if you do have a case. The above mentioned case is an example of how hard it is to prove that you have to work in a hostile environment, which is fundamental in sexual harassment trials. The attorney’s hired by the DHS alleged that the sexual jokes and comments were isolated incidents, spread over time, and White made too much of them. The argument did not hold in their case, but it’s something you need to be prepared for.

Sexual harassment lawyers advise their clients to collect as much evidence as possible. Keeping a journal where you write down all the incidents, detailing what was said and who was present at the time can be most helpful.

Also, if the harassment you’re subjected to includes being sent indecent messages or sexually suggestive images, don’t click the delete button. Save everything to your device as they can be used as evidence in court.

Before getting a lawyer you should, however, resolve the situation by speaking directly to your employer or filing a complaint with the HR department. According to the law this is the first step you need to take and your employer needs to be allowed the time to put things in order. If they fail to do so, experienced employment lawyers recommend filing a complaint with state authorities, such as the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, or with federal bodies, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

These commissions are required to look into your case and, if they find just cause, they will initiate negotiations between you and your employer. If you know what’s good for you, you shouldn’t go into these negotiations without good Iowa sexual harassment lawyers by your side. Your employer will most certainly bring their own attorneys and so should you.

You need to have reliable legal representation as there’s a lot at stake in such a negotiation. Through mediation you can get reinstated if you were forced to quit your job. Not many sexual harassment victims want to go back to their old job, though. Much more important are the damages you can recover through mediation. For instance, you can be compensated for lost wages, but a good lawyer can also win punitive damages for you. 

A former Specialized Bicycle female employee has filed a lawsuit against the company in a Connecticut federal court, claiming that she was laid off in the early days of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, in clear violation of federal and state civil rights and employment laws.

In a 59-page complaint, Lauren Parenti said she “endured a hostile work environment where women were treated as less competent than men and, worse still, as sexual playthings for upper management.” 

This is a typical case of sexual discrimination in the workplace and it is rather surprising since Connecticut has one of the most comprehensive laws against sexual harassment. If you find yourself in a similar situation and don’t know who to turn to, you should get in touch with a good lawyer. 

The rights of an employee to a safe workplace were already protected under federal laws, but in 2019 Connecticut enacted the Time’s Up Act expanding sexual harassment training requirements for employers of any size. Even if you run a small business with three employees in the state of Connecticut you need to provide training for them. Your employees also need to be informed who they can complain to in case they are subjected to sexual harassment. It might be one of the managers or the HR department, and they are legally required to investigate any complaint they get. 

This is one of the first questions, most Connecticut sexual harassment lawyers ask during the initial consultation. How is your employer dealing with the required training concerning sexual discrimination in the workplace. Their failure to provide adequate training and a clearly established internal complaint mechanism will weigh heavily if the case goes to trial.

Sexual harassment lawyers can help you prove your managers and/or coworkers created a hostile work environment. In other words, you have to establish that your coworkers used crude jokes, inappropriate gestures or touches, etc in order to ridicule or humiliate you. You’ll have to prove that this was a pervasive attitude, that caused you mental anguish and made you dread going to work. If it was just an inappropriate joke with sexual undertones at the office Christmas party, that does not constitute sexual harassment. It’s not something you can use in court, as the guilty party can always say it was a simple joke, not meant to hurt you in any way. 

Another common type of sexual harassment concerns requests for sexual favors made by a direct supervisor or manager. If you were threatened with termination or told you won’t get any raise or promotion unless you agree to have sex with them, this is a serious case of sexual harassment. You will still need to prove it in court, though. 

Connecticut laws provide protection against retaliation in the work place for any employee that testifies in such cases. This might make it easier for your employment lawyers to find witnesses who were present when those unwanted sexual advances were made.

In many cases, when one abused employee finds the courage to speak, other women who were subjected to the same treatment decide to come forth and share their story.