Newcorp Legal Scenario

NewCorp Legal Scenarios

Carla deRomano,

Bus. Law 531

October 31, 2011

Judy Gray, J.D.

NewCorp Legal Scenarios

On the issue of legal matters, many businesses in the United States do not have staff counsel and do not want to spend the money to obtain advice from an attorney until after they have an assessment of the legal encounters in question. The following are brief assessments of three legal encounters involving NewCorp and the legal principles that support the decision made in each encounter.

Legal Encounter One

Pat rearranged his life to take a position at NewCorp and made major changes and adjustments to pursue this position. Pat relocated, sold his home and his wife left her job and are totally dependent on his employment with NewCorp. The termination after 90 days and only one verbal warning is the result of discrimination by his manager. If management is knowingly terminating him for his participation in the local school board meeting that is against the law. One violation is the violation Intentional Discrimination act because what Pat's manager is doing is cruel and malicious. Because management had no prior issues with Pat, what other conclusion could he come to besides this or one or retaliation?

According to Cheeseman:, the aggrieved party can recover compensatory damages in a case involving intentional discrimination. A court can award punitive damages against an employer if malice or reckless indifference to federally protected rights has been violated The caps of compensatory and punitive damages are different amounts of money, depending on the size of the employer (Cheeseman, 2010).

Pat sacrificed a great deal to join this company both monetarily and physically and should be compensated accordingly because he must find new employment and may have to move his family and sell his home once again.

Another violation that Pat could use against NewCorp is retaliation. Pat is being terminated for no existing reason and has not gotten any prior write ups. The burden will be on NewCorp to prove that Pat is being dismissed for just and verified cause. They will have to show a paper trail documenting this and have Pat's signature on the documents.

In Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 employers are expressly prohibited from retaliating against an employee for filing a charge of discrimination or participating in a discrimination proceedings regarding race, color, national origin, sex, or religious discrimination. Acts of retaliation are also forbidden for bringing and maintaining charges of age discrimination, disability discrimination, and discrimination in violation of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Acts of retaliation includes dismissing, demoting, harassing, or other methods of retaliation (Cheeseman, 2011).

In reality NewCorp is in the wrong, and it is doubtful that they would win this case if it were presented to the EEOC. NewCorp hasn't even given Pat a fair chance to prove himself within the organization. Three months isn't enough time to rate an employees performance. So to base his dismissal solely on that basis is unwarranted.

Legal Encounter Two

NewCorp Supervisor Sam made unwanted behaviors to Employee Paula even after she requested him to stop. Paula previously dated Sam, ended the personal relationship and Sam desired to continue dating. No longer comfortable working with Sam, Paula attempted

transfer to another department and this attempt was blocked by Sam.

NewCorp's policy to address employees making unwanted behaviors toward others must

be initiated as NewCorp has a legal obligation to provide trainings to stop employee harassment in the working environment. Procedures implemented must provide an effective way for employees to report harassment. NewCorp's responsibility is to address these types of behaviors and provide staff a harassment free workplace.

Supervisors and managers violate serious practices by not responding to an alleged harassment or retaliations of a harassment complaint. Failure to stop the harassment and provide corrective action results in fines, incarceration or both. Legal implications for NewCorp include liability for responding inappropriately to the harassment incident.

In the U.S. Supreme Court Case