Your Legal Journey
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Why You Need a Workplace Harassment Attorney
Workplace harassment can take a toll on your professional and personal life. When you’ve finally had enough and are ready to file a formal complaint, you face a complex road ahead. You have to decide with which agency your claim should be filed. Should you submit a claim with the Colorado Civil Rights Division? Or would you be better off filing your grievance with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission? Actually, you could complain to both agencies. The filing process is quite involved with deadlines that vary depending on whether your complaint is filed with the state or federal government.
Eventually, you may need to file a lawsuit to come to a resolution in your case. This, too, is a detailed process that requires written permission from either the EEOC or the state’s Civil Rights Division. The filing deadlines for a lawsuit are even tighter than those for submitting a complaint.
Of course, there’s also proving your claim. What you may think is a hostile work environment may not be under the law. In fact, what constitutes harassment on the job is actually quite narrow. For instance, the harassing behavior directed at you, generally, cannot be a one-off incident.
“Isolated or trivial episodes of harassment are insufficient to satisfy that standard. A court must look to the totality of the circumstances to determine whether the alleged conduct is sufficiently pervasive to create a hostile environment.”
Honeycutt v. Safeway, Inc., 475 F. Supp. 2d 1063, 1068 (D. Colo. 2007)
An experienced employment law attorney can tell you whether what you are experiencing meets the law’s requirements. If you have a case, hiring an attorney who can help you navigate this complex process will put you in a better position to achieve a good outcome. Your attorney will work to make your claim as strong as possible, ensure it is filed on time, and aggressively pursue all damages available to you.