Orange County Hostile Work Environment Legal Help

Protecting Employees in Orange County from Workplace Abuse

No one needs to put up with a sexually hostile workplace. If you are the victim of gender-based harassment at work, you may be entitled to compensation, policy changes, and other remedies under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. For years, the legal team at Sexual Harassment Employment Attorneys has represented clients in Orange County and the surrounding areas who have been taken advantage of by other people in the workplace. We are ready to fight for you and urge you to schedule a complimentary and confidential case evaluation with a Orange County hostile work environment attorney at the firm as soon as possible.

Identifying Hostile Work Environment Conduct

If the behavior is isolated or one-time in nature, it may not constitute sexual harassment and it may not rise to a level to create a hostile work environment. However, if the behavior is repeated or is pervasive enough, we may be able to develop a case against your employer. You may also have a case if your employer retaliates against you after you complained of such a work environment

No one needs to put up with a hostile work environment. A Orange County hostile work environment lawyer at our firm may handle hostile work environment cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you will not have to pay any legal fees unless we successfully recover compensation from your employer. Compensation may include back pay, front pay, policy changes, actual damages, damages for emotional distress, attorney fees, and punitive damages.

Understanding California's Hostile Work Environment Laws

A hostile work environment is one where unwelcome conduct that is either sexual or gender-based is severe or pervasive to the point where it creates an abusive environment. In instances where an offensive remark or action occurs once and is not repeated, where someone makes an offhand remark, teases, or engages in occasional rude behavior, a case for a hostile work environment cannot be made. This includes relatively trivial and isolated instances of unacceptable behavior.

Hostile work environment sexual harassment occurs where the sexual conduct had the purpose or effect of interfering with work or creating an intimidating, hostile environment.

Building Your Hostile Work Environment Case in California

To prove a hostile work environment, it will be necessary to show that the actions from the offender were abusive and pervasive. In a hostile work environment, the offensive or discriminatory behavior will be frequent, severe, may be physically threatening or humiliating, may have interfered with the victim's ability to perform at work, and may have had a negative effect on his or her psychological state. Another important factor which would be considered by the courts in deciding this matter is if the harassing behavior came from a superior in the workplace.

To establish a case for hostile work environment sexual harassment under either Title VII of the EEOC or the FEHA an employee must allege:

1. The employee was subject to unwelcomed or unwanted sexual advances, conducts, or comments.
2. The harassment was sexual in nature.
3. The harassment was so severe that it created an abusive workplace environment.

When Employers Are Liable for Workplace Harassment

An employer can only be held liable for the harassment if the employer knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take immediate action. The harassment may be committed by supervisors, coworkers, and nonemployees. The harasser's motive is irrelevant, as long as the environment is hostile to the employee. While most hostile work environment sexual harassment cases involve heterosexual harassment, they may also take the form of same-sex harassment.

Are You Facing a Sexually Hostile Work Environment?

Specific behavior that makes for a hostile work environment include such actions as offensive remarks about how someone looks, comments about bodies and body parts, inappropriate touching, groping, sexist remarks, discussions about sexual activity, sexually suggestive posters, pictures, displays, emails, or phone calls, derogatory comments about one's gender, sexually explicit jokes, repeated unwanted sexual advances, or long patterns of ridicule or degrading remarks about one's gender. All of this type of behavior must be abusive and repetitive.

Get Legal Support from our Orange County Hostile Work Environment Attorneys by calling (888) 427-8064 now!

Consult with a Orange County Sexually Hostile Work Environment Attorney

If you need legal guidance concerning whether or not you have been subjected to a hostile work environment, you should contact the firm to schedule a consultation with a Orange County hostile work environment lawyer. Our firm has helped thousands of clients throughout the region who have been faced with sexual harassment and other employment law issues. We have a solid track record in effectively representing clients in sexual harassment cases from Orange County to Los Angeles to Riverside and the surrounding areas.