Sexual Harassment Deposition Goals

Irvine Employment LawyerAn Irvine employment lawyer will discuss each important aspect of your case. One of the most important parts of your case will be the process of taking and defending a deposition. There are several goals for this type of deposition.

Additional Discovery

An Irvine employment lawyer may also discuss what he or she hopes to get from this process. One important goal is to gather additional evidence in the case. Your Irvine employment law attorney may be able to extract evidence that there were unwanted advances, that the conduct was offensive from both an objective and subjective perspective and that the harassment injured the plaintiff either psychologically or professionally. On the other hand, a defendant will want to gather evidence that disproves these elements. When defending a deposition, an Irvine employment lawyer may be able to limit or prevent questions regarding the plaintiff’s dress or conduct outside the workplace.

Nondiscriminatory Intent

A defendant’s counsel may have an additional goal: to prove that the defendant was not harassing a person on the basis of gender. Although it may seem deplorable, a defendant may be able to get away with harassment as long as the harassment was not due to a protected characteristic, such as the sex of the victim. Therefore, a defendant’s counsel may try to show that the harasser was harassing both men and women.

Adverse Action

Another important goal of a deposition on a sexual harassment case is to determine how an employee or former employee was adversely affected by the harassment. In order to prevail on this claim, the victim of the harassment must be able to show that there was a tangible employment action taken against him or her, such as being fired, demoted or reassigned to a less preferable assignment. Additionally, counsel will want to determine whether the employer had the chance to prevent and correct the alleged sexually harassing conduct and whether the victim of the harassment took advantage of this preventative or corrective opportunity.

Individuals who are interested in pursuing a sexual harassment claim against an employer can contact an Irvine employment law attorney with Daily Aljian LLP at 949-861-2524.