Takeaway: Employers are well aware of the risks that apparently small discrimination cases pose. Even if a plaintiff alleges relatively small economic damages, damages for pain and suffering and requests for attorney fees can still substantially inflate the price tag. However, this decision shows that employers have ways to fight back. California courts will not automatically assume that a successful plaintiff in a discrimination case has suffered noneconomic damages, and they will also carefully scrutinize excessive requests for attorney fees.
A California appellate court denied a terminated employee’s request for a new trial regarding her alleged pain and suffering and her request for well over $1 million in attorney fees in a disability discrimination case.
The case concerned a woman who had been sexually assaulted by an inmate while working at a previous job at a prison. As a result of the assault, the plaintiff was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, which caused her to suffer from intermittent shortness of breath. The plaintiff went out on medical leave and, while still on leave, applied for a position as a pre-licensed psychiatric technician with defendant California Department of State Hospitals (DSH), which houses criminal offenders with mental disorders as well as individuals who have been found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.
On her DSH job application, the plaintiff failed to disclose...
The CDC has allegedly posted statements suggesting vaccines may cause autism, even though decades of scientific evidence show no such link. Medical experts stress that autism is one of the most ri...