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Don't count on this happening often but a federal judge has ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay an Iowa trucking company's $4.56 million legal bill after dismissing what she characterized as over zealous prosecution and a very poorly conceived and handled pattern and practice sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the federal agency in 2007 on behalf of female drivers.
It is our opinion that although most EEOC offices are staffed by competent professionals for this branch office of the EEOC to force a Company to run up millions in legal fees defending a case that can't get past the judge is abusive and the judge was correct in assigning fees. And lawyers who had experience with this particular EEOC office say the personnel were always over zealous and consistently made the threat "concede or we'll punish you" which was apparent in this case. This EEOC office pushed the envelope of the law and the law pushed back for once.
But there is another appalling side to this story. How did you feel about the "millions in legal fees"? This is surely an example of attorneys gone wild. This is why so many otherwise defensable cases end up in shake down settlements after frivolous claims because employers cannot afford to defend themselves and insurance carriers usually refuse to do their duty if it may cost them any money to actually earn their premiums.
We are interested in any examples of what you may consider to be either over zeolous government offices or outrageous attorney fees for defense of employment related claims.
Bonansinga and Associates LLC "Human Capital Decision Support"
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