So I have been dealing with a situation from my job. I have…

Jacob,

Thank you very much for your reply. I'm sorry to hear about all this and certainly appreciate your concerns.

Generally speaking individuals alleging sexual harassment and workplace discrimination are entitled to compensation for any loss of income directly resulting from the illegal conduct of their employer, related medical or therapy costs, "pain and suffering" damages and, where the conduct of the employer is determined by a jury to be "with malice or reckless indifference," punitive damages.

The loss of wages and medical/therapy costs are, of course, the easiest to quantify and compute. More difficult are the computations of pain and suffering damages (often referred to as "general damages") and punitive damages.

Pain and suffering damages are highly subjective and depend on a number of factors unique to each particular circumstance. Pain and suffering damages will be the greatest where the conduct of the employer is particularly severe (physical assault, highly offensive use of racial slurs or sexual language, etc.) and where the plaintiff has sought and obtained therapy for the emotional harm their employer's conduct has caused.

It is hard to assign a number to pain and suffering damages in any case, but if I was an attorney representing an individual in your circumstance, I would probably look to make an initial demand roughly equal to the special damages--about $40,000.

Again, keep in mind that these numbers are highly subjective and based on a variety of factors, including the overall strength of the case and desired settlement posture, which are impossible for me to fully consider through this limited online forum. I am not your attorney and cannot engage in legal representation through Just Answer, so I cannot tell you what is appropriate in your particular case--only what I would do as an attorney faced with hypothetical facts similar to what you have described.

Punitive damages are again highly subjective, but what is important to understand is that they are intended to punish employers and so the appropriate amount of punitive damages is as much a function of the size of the employer (larger employers won't feel much "punishment" by an award of $10,000 in punitive damages, which is just a drop in the bucket for them) as it is the severity of the discriminatory conduct.

Punitive damages in employment discrimination suits are also capped by statute. For employers with 15-100 employees, the limit is $50,000. This limit goes up to $300,000 for employers with 500 employees or more.

Assuming you work for an employer with less than 100 employees, I'd go with the statutory cap of $50,000. Even if your company has more employees, I would probably not exceed that amount, as doing so absent truly egregious facts will likely only alienate the other side and make settlement of any kind all the more unlikely.

I do hope that this addresses your concerns. Please do not heistate to contact me if you have any further questions regarding the above. It would be my pleasure to assist you further.

If you do not require any further assistance, please be so kind as to provide a positive rating of my service so that I may receive credit for assisting you.

Finally, please remember that none of the above constitutes legal advice nor is any attorney client relationship created between us. Very best wishes to you and thank you so much for coming to Just Answer.