Washington, D.C. Sexual Harassment Attorneys
Get Help with Workplace Sexual Harassment in Washington, D.C.
Did something inappropriate happen at work, but you don’t know what to do about it? Let our attorneys help.
Zipin, Amster & Greenberg has more than six decades of combined legal experience handling workplace issues, including cases involving sexual harassment in Washington, D.C.
We’ll evaluate what happened, determine what action may be appropriate, deal with your employer when necessary, address retaliation, and pursue compensation and other available remedies.
Was What Happened to Me Sexual Harassment?
You may know that something inappropriate happened at work, but you’re not sure if it legally qualifies as sexual harassment.
Our attorneys want you to know that sexual harassment doesn’t always involve overt physical contact. It can also take the form of spoken, written, or electronic communications.
Sexual harassment may include:
- Inappropriate comments
- Unwanted physical contact
- Repeated requests for dates
- Retaliation after rejecting unwanted advances
- Offensive jokes
- Sexually explicit materials
- Other conduct related to an individual’s sex, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity
It also isn’t limited to interactions with your boss. It can involve coworkers, customers, clients, vendors, contractors, or another third party.
In Washington, D.C., sexual harassment generally falls under these two categories:
Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment
This occurs when someone with authority ties an employment benefit or consequence to sexual conduct. For example, your supervisor may suggest that you must accept a date to receive a promotion, or they may punish you for rejecting unwanted advances.
Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment
This involves conduct that contributes to an intimidating, hostile, or abusive workplace. Whether conduct creates a hostile work environment depends on the circumstances, including its effect on you and your workplace.
If you need help identifying what type of harassment you suffered and what steps to take, our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment lawyers are ready to assist you.
What Should I Do After Experiencing Sexual Harassment at Work?
To strengthen your claim and help improve your outcome, our Washington, D.C. employment attorneys have outlined the most important steps to take after experiencing sexual harassment.
Document Everything
If possible, begin documenting every incident connected to sexual harassment as soon as it occurs.
This includes writing down dates, times, locations, witnesses, and exactly what happened.
Also, if you are authorized to do so, preserve any emails, text messages, chat logs, photographs, personnel records, performance evaluations, and any other documents that may support your account.
Review Your Employer’s Anti-Harassment Policy
If your employer maintains a written anti-harassment policy, review the reporting procedures carefully.
Keep copies of every complaint you submit, as well as any responses from your employer.
This can greatly strengthen your case, since reporting the conduct to human resources or another designated manager can create an important record that may become valuable evidence.
Avoid Deleting Evidence
You should also avoid deleting electronic communications, even if they seem insignificant at the time.
This evidence can include emails, text messages, calendar entries, and internal messaging records that can become important evidence during an investigation or lawsuit.
Contact a Washington, D.C. Employment Attorney Immediately
Most importantly, consider speaking with our experienced D.C. employment attorneys before making major employment decisions such as signing severance agreements or resigning from your position.
Our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys can evaluate your circumstances, explain what your options are, help report the harassment, determine what important evidence should be preserved, and more.
Can My Employer Retaliate Against Me for Reporting Sexual Harassment?
Just as sexual harassment is illegal, so is retaliation for reporting sexual harassment.
That means you’re protected against a variety of retaliatory actions, which can include:
- Termination
- Undesirable work assignments
- Reduced hours
- Disciplinary write-ups
- Poor performance evaluations
- Exclusion from meetings
- Denial of promotions
- Sudden poor performance reviews
- Increased scrutiny
- Threats or intimidation
- Other actions that would discourage an employee from reporting unlawful conduct
Our attorneys can enforce these protections to help stop your employer from taking any action against you after reporting misconduct, no matter how subtle that action may be or when it took place.
Filing a Retaliation Claim
If your employer retaliates against you, our sexual harassment attorneys will pivot from protection to aggressive legal action.
This may include filing injunctions, where our attorneys ask a court or administrative agency to freeze a termination or transfer while an investigation is pending.
In cases where we helped file an active complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR) or the EEOC, our sexual harassment attorneys may seek to amend the complaint to include a retaliation claim.
In some instances, your workplace environment may become too difficult for you to handle. If this happens, our attorneys may use your employer’s retaliation to negotiate a severance package, positive reference letters, and a clean employment record so you can move on to a new job.
Regardless of what approach your situation calls for, our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys are ready to pursue a retaliation claim in addition to your sexual harassment claim.
What If HR or My Employer Does Nothing About the Sexual Harassment?
Reporting harassment does not always resolve the problem.
Your employer may ignore a complaint, delay their response, conduct an inadequate investigation, minimize what happened, claim there is insufficient evidence, defend the person accused, or allow the harassment to continue.
However, their failure to act doesn’t end the matter, nor does an employer’s conclusion that it responded appropriately to a report.
Our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys can pursue legal remedies that impose responsibilities on employers when harassment involves coworkers, customers, vendors, contractors, or other third parties, depending on the circumstances.
Additionally, our attorneys can take the matter beyond the company’s internal process and pursue appropriate legal action if your employer fails to properly address the harassment.
Depending on the circumstances, that may include pursuing an administrative complaint, negotiating with the employer, or filing a lawsuit.
What Can I Recover or Accomplish Through a Sexual Harassment Claim?
Your sexual harassment claim may involve more than obtaining financial compensation.
Rather, your outcome may depend on your specific goals. For instance, you want the harassment to stop, your job to be protected, your employment record addressed, or your relationship with your employer resolved so you can move forward.
Our employment lawyers can help you receive the compensation, damages, and other remedies that may be available under the law due to your sexual harassment claim.
Let us pursue an appropriate resolution to your sexual harassment claim through negotiation, administrative proceedings, or litigation.
This can include recovering:
- Lost wages
- Lost employment benefits
- Compensation for emotional distress
- Attorney’s fees
- Litigation costs
- Other remedies authorized by law
In appropriate cases, our attorneys can take matters before the courts, who may also:
- Award front pay
- Award punitive damages
- Order job reinstatement
- Require employers to change unlawful employment practices
Additionally, our attorneys may be able to negotiate a resolution that addresses:
- Severance
- Employment records
- References
- Terms surrounding separation from employment
- Other appropriate employment-related issues
However, your outcome will depend on the facts of your case. Our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys can evaluate what happened to you and determine what compensation and other remedies may be available.
How Our Washington, D.C. Sexual Harassment Attorneys Can Help
If you’ve suffered from sexual harassment at work, you don’t have to handle it alone.
Our employment attorneys can evaluate the details of your claim, help you protect your rights under Washington, D.C. law, and take action to get the compensation you deserve.
Evaluate Your Case
Our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys will examine what prohibited conduct took place with your sexual harassment claim.
For instance, we’ll evaluate what happened to determine whether sexual harassment occurred, by whom, and what effects it had on you and potentially other employees.
We will also address who may be held responsible in order to stop the harassment and pursue financial compensation for you.
Help You Choose the Best Option
After establishing that you suffered unlawful sexual harassment and by whom, we will help you choose the best path forward.
That may mean guiding you through the internal reporting process, dealing directly with your employer, and addressing retaliation.
In other cases, our attorneys may need to help you file complaints with an administrative agency, such as the D.C. Office of Human Rights.
We will also help you take practical steps to help improve your outcome, such as identifying what important evidence you should preserve.
Negotiate Your Settlement
Our attorneys can handle any situation you may face when it comes time to respond to your employer or settle your claim.
This may involve demand letters outlining the legal violations to pressure the employer into resolving the matter quietly.
In other cases, our attorneys can help by representing you during agency-sponsored or private mediation sessions to negotiate a severance or settlement package without going to court.
As we do so, we will use our decades of legal experience to maximize your recovery of damages, which may include back pay, emotional distress damages, and attorney fees.
Taking Your Claim to Court
If needed, our attorneys are prepared to take your claim to the local D.C. Superior Court or federal courts.
This may involve deposing managers, filing subpoenas for corporate records, and presenting your case before a judge or jury to help you recover the maximum compensation allowed, along with other remedies available to you.
If you want to hold your employer accountable and receive the damages that may be available, our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment lawyers are ready to help you.
Sexual Harassment Can Also Happen in Remote and Hybrid Work Environments
Even though you may not work for your Washington, D.C. employer in person, you may still be a victim of sexual harassment.
For instance, you may have suffered sexual harassment via a company email, video conference, instant messaging platform, text message, workplace collaboration tool, or other electronic communications used for work such as Slack, Teams, Zoom meetings, etc.
Our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment lawyers can evaluate what digital conduct took place, along with other electronic evidence that can be used to help you with your sexual harassment claim.
This digital evidence may include:
- Emails
- Text or direct messages
- Chat logs
- Screenshots
- Video meeting invitations
- Calendar entries
- Any other communications that document the conduct
Our Washington, D.C. employment lawyers will examine what prohibited actions took place and help you receive the compensation and other remedies allowed under law, regardless of whether you work in-person or remotely.
Who Can Be Responsible for Workplace Sexual Harassment?
Your direct supervisor may not be the only person held responsible for sexual harassment.
Instead, the person who is held legally responsible can depend on who committed the harassment, the employer’s knowledge of the conduct, and how the employer responded.
Depending on the circumstances, sexual harassment may involve your:
- Coworker
- Supervisor or manager
- Owner or executive
- Customer or client
- Vendor
- Contractor
- Other third party
Our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys can determine who may be legally responsible and pursue the appropriate remedies.
Washington, D.C. Protections Against Workplace Sexual Harassment
To maximize the compensation that may be available to you as a result of your sexual harassment claim, our attorneys will examine what took place with your employer and determine which laws and protections apply.
This may include the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA). This law prevents discrimination against workers due to their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, marital status, family responsibilities, race, religion, disability, age, national origin, personal appearance, and several other protected classifications.
Additionally, the above District law complements Federal protections against sexual harassment, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits workplace discrimination because of sex.
Let our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys help you pursue a claim against your employer under both District of Columbia and federal laws.
Experienced Washington, D.C. Sexual Harassment Attorneys
We understand what you’re facing after being sexually harassed, including feeling victimized by your employer and being overwhelmed by the legal process.
The Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys at Zipin, Amster & Greenberg have a combined 60 years of legal experience handling these types of cases.
Let us be the legal ally you can count on as we provide the guidance and advocacy you need to achieve a favorable outcome.
Washington, D.C. Sexual Harassment Lawyers Who Stand Up to Employers
You don’t have to face your employer alone.
Even if your employer denies wrongdoing, disputes what occurred, or argues they responded appropriately once a complaint was made, we are here to help you through this difficult time.
Let our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment lawyers work on your behalf to hold your employer accountable for what happened.
Contact Our Sexual Harassment Attorneys Today
If you’re unsure whether what happened was sexual harassment, are concerned about retaliation, or want to know what can be done to help you, turn to our Washington, D.C. sexual harassment attorneys.
We’ll evaluate your situation and take the appropriate action to help you receive justice.
Fill out our contact form today or call us at 301-587-9373.
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