Anything more is left to our respective senses of common decency. It's supposed to keep us from being at each others' throats. Our system is designed to prevent only the worst kinds of behavior - you know, like murder, armed robbery, and driving 70 in a 55. The American legal system would collapse in a heap if people could sue every time their feelings were hurt. But we feel that way because it's the right thing to do, not because it's the law. So is everybody in Human Resources who's worth a darn. If you read this blog very often, you know that I am a strong advocate of treating employees respectfully, fairly, and with dignity. There is no legal right to a warm and fuzzy workplace. They can be arbitrary and play favorites as long as they're not making distinctions based on "protected" categories, like race or sex. In fact, employers can usually be downright jerks as long as they are equally jerky to everybody. The law does not require employers to treat their employees like "family," or to be nice, or even to be particularly fair. Even if you got the shaft at work, it is unlikely that you were treated illegally. But I make this post in good faith, based on my experience and observations in many years of employment litigation.ġ. So, you don't have to believe what I'm about to say. Even though many of my best friends are employees and plaintiffs' lawyers. ![]() That means that, in any kind of workplace legal dispute, I am on the employer's side, not the employee's side. To be fair, this week I'll talk about the other side - four reasons why employees shouldn't be too quick to sue their employers.ĭISCLAIMER: I am a defense lawyer. Last week I busted on "my own side" by giving four reasons why employers shouldn't be so quick to fire their employees. My responses are under the name "InsiderBlog" or "Robin Shea." Thanks very much for your patience, and please keep the comments coming! I think we have everything fixed now, and I've gone back in this morning and replied to just about everybody unless the comment did not seek a response or I couldn't understand the comment. It’s the visible and invisible group of survivors and advocates who got her into that courtroom.NOTE TO READERS (7/18/15): Due to a technical issue with the comments, replies that I tried to make to a number of commenters did not "post." I apologize. ![]() It’s the survivors who will never choose to sue their abusers, and the nonfamous ones who will, like the nearly 1,000 imprisoned women who are suing prison staff for alleged sex abuse. Because it is not the former president who really matters in this story. And so it is imperative that we do not turn “turn away” but instead face this trial - and the community that made it possible - head on. That hard-fought battle, however, is only one more step in the journey toward accountability. “It’s not just people who are famous or their perpetrators were famous, but survivors passed a law to open the civil court system. Jean is able to be inside of that courtroom because survivors like myself, Drew Dixon, Evelyn Yang worked exhaustively to lobby and share our stories to ensure that the law was passed,” said Turkos. She sees Carroll’s day in court as “the epitome of collective liberation.” And one of the people who fought tooth and nail to get the ASA passed is Turkos. The ASA would not exist without the tireless work of a group sexual assault survivors. It’s not anyone else’s decision to decide what justice and healing looks like for her.” ![]() Jean really, really wanted to file this lawsuit. “Very similar to abortion access, I always want someone to be able to have access ,” said Turkos. But as Turkos pointed out, having the choice is what matters. Many will never choose to file a lawsuit against their alleged abusers for that reason. Going through the court system, criminal or civil, can be a daunting, exhausting, retraumatizing prospect for survivors. “I just thought, it’s time,” Carroll told The New York Times in 2019, when asked why she chose to tell this story publicly after so many years had passed. She wrote about the alleged rape in her memoir, an excerpt of which ran in New York Magazine. This woman is bearing public witness against a man who could once again become the president of the United States.Ĭarroll first went public with her story in 2019, in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
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