Getting Emotional Damages in Discrimination and Harassment Cases

When something bad happens to you at work–say, you are fired, or demoted, or deprived of benefits, or not selected to work on a great project–and you sense that this is because of illegal harassment or discrimination, there can be two types of damages that a worker can recover.

One type of damage is economic damage. This is the loss of wages or loss of money from not getting a promotion, or the wages lost from a wrongful termination.

But there is another category of damages in discrimination and harassment cases, that can be equally devastating: the emotional distress of having to suffer through repetitive, daily humiliation, degradation, insults, or being demeaned, because of your race, nationality, sex, age, gender, or disability.

The law recognizes this, and allows those who have been victims of workplace discrimination and harassment to sue to collect damages for their emotional distress.

What are Emotional Damages?

The term “emotional damages” is broad, and can include a number of different things, all of which can naturally occur as a result of harassment or discrimination.

Being picked on or insulted at work, or fearing that you may be let go or terminated, and worrying about your future, can all lead to anxiety. As can the concern of “what will happen next” if you are being harassed; what will your harasser do or say to you tomorrow or the day after? If you were humiliated by offensive comments at work today, what kind of humiliation will you face tomorrow?

This anxiety can easily spiral into insomnia, which, ironically can make it even harder to do your job the next day.

This fear and anxiety can actually lead to physical symptoms, such as digestive problems, headaches, hypertension or any other number of ailments.

Proving Emotional Damages and Distress

Proof of emotional damages, can, in some ways, be easy–but it can also be difficult.

On the one hand, it is difficult, because emotional damages don’t show up on scans or X-rays or other diagnostics. A jury just has to “trust” that you have suffered emotional damages, based on the evidence and testimony that you have provided.

But on the other hand, especially in more serious cases, jurors inherently know when something at work would cause someone distress or would cause trauma.

Being sexually harassed, being insulted, being told that you must do something sexual to advance in your job, worrying about how you will feed your family if you are facing wrongful termination–all of these things, jurors understand, naturally can cause someone immense distress and trauma.

No Medical Evidence Necessary

And while you do need evidence of your distress or the trauma that the harassment or discrimination has caused you, that doesn’t mean you necessarily need extensive medical documentation. Testimony from you and from others often is enough to warrant a sizable noneconomic award from a jury for emotional distress as a result of harassment at work.

Being harassed at work? Let us help. Contact the San Jose employment discrimination attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today.

Source:

forbes.com/sites/ericbachman/2020/07/21/the-abcs-of-emotional-distress-damages-in-employment-discrimination-cases