Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘hostile environment’

Telling blonde jokes in workplace

Reversing a trial court that had granted summary judgment to the defense, a court of appeals in Washington state has reinstated a suit entitled Strong v. Wright in which

the plaintiff sued her former supervisor because he told “blonde jokes” (apparently plaintiff was blonde), made fun of her house, ridiculed her husband’s job, and referred to her as a “bum mother” because she put her son in therapy. The plaintiff alleged that this treatment “caused her to vomit and to have anxiety attacks, depression, and heart palpitations.” Really. Blonde jokes=heart palpitations.

Dennis Whitlind at World of Work has more (Nov. 14)(via O’Keefe).

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Dov Charney, the sequel

Earlier this year Ted wrote an item titled “Implausible defense department” about American Apparel founder Dov Charney’s efforts to explain away jaw-droppingly colorful facts in the latest of the multiple sexual harassment complaints he has faced. The sequel is worthy of what has gone before: it appears that Charney faked an agreement to send the case to arbitration to conceal a deal in which he agreed to settle the claim for $1.3 million. The deal later fell apart and the case is headed back for (presumably genuine) litigation. (On Point News, Workplace Prof Blog).

P.S. Overlawyered guestblogger Victoria Pynchon, of the IP ADR Blog, has now posted a more extensive and detailed report on the case, & see Nov. 16 update with company’s side of the story.

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