Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Financial aspects of Sexual harassment cases

When sexual harassment in the workplace is brought to attention, there are many aspects that are thought of, such as the statically facts, prevention, causes, types, etc. However, the financial cost is often forgotten. Not only are sexual harassment cases costly to the organization and the one being charged with elided sexual harassment charge, but costs can occur in ways often one does not think about. In this section five aspects of financial costs will be discussed; How much it cost to peruse/defend sexual harassment cases (on average), How much money (on average) do companies have to pay out for sexual harassment lawsuits, costs of insurance for protection/liability against sexual harassment cases in the workplace, cost of losing reputation/funding/government contracts because of sexual harassment cases with one specific example and finally, the cost of education/awareness for employees.

When it comes to perusing and or defending sexual harassment cases there are typical costs that one can expect to endure. Such typical costs include the price of a representative for the case, or an attorney. Some attorneys may provide a free initial consultation, but others will charge their usual hourly rate for going over the facts of your case and reviewing your legal options. As always, with anything, the more experience one has in a certain field, the more money they can charge per hour. Such hourly rates can cost from $80 an hour for an attorney that has 1-4 year of experience, to $250 an hour for someone with 20+ years of experience. However, there are many private attorneys that accept sexual harassment cases on a contingency basis; this means the lawyer will receive nothing if their client loses the case, and will receive 20-50 percent of any money received in a settlement if their client “wins”. Typically, an attorney will charge a lower percentage if a case is settled before reaching the court system and a larger...