Anti-harassment training is as important as ever now that there is a law—signed earlier this year—banning enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration pacts for sexual-harassment claims. Here is an overview of what should and shouldn't be included in the training.
"The fact that there is no more mandatory arbitration of sexual-harassment claims may lead to a proliferation of cases being filed, as juries are perceived to be a much more employee-friendly litigation environment than an arbitrator," said Louis Chodoff, an attorney with Ballard Spahr in Mount Laurel, N.J. "Conventional wisdom is that in the event the employer is found liable, juries tend to impose larger damage awards than an arbitrator."
Kristine Kwong, an attorney with Musick Peeler in Los Angeles, added that "employers are nervous of litigating sexual-harassment cases in front of the jury because of the fear of the runaway jury verdict."
However, Preston Pugh, an attorney with Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, questioned the conventional wisdom, saying, "Exposure under arbitration is the same now" as before juries. "Anti-harassment training is as needed today as it was before the enactment of the law."
Nonetheless, Andrew Sherrod, an attorney with Hirschler in Richmond, Va., said, "While anti-harassment training has always been best practice for mitigating risk and building a workplace culture based on mutual respect, companies now have an added incentive to avoid the reputational damage that...
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