Retaliation Lawsuits More Costly than Just Financial Awards

Madison, Wis.—April 25, 2008 — Although retaliation lawsuits are related to discrimination lawsuits, they are opening up a whole new territory in higher education employment law, according to a recent online seminar led by two higher education law experts.

During “Retaliation Claims against Colleges: A Liability Explosion,” Brett Sokolow, president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), and Saundra Schuster, an assistant attorney general for the State of Ohio, reviewed the following aspects of retaliation that many institutions might find surprising:

• In retaliation lawsuits, whistleblowers claim that they have been punished for bringing a campus problem to light; this problem may be discrimination based on sex, race, age, or disability. However, in a retaliation case, the complainant does not have to be a member of a protected class, Schuster said.

• Retaliation claims currently make up more than 25 percent of all claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she said. Meanwhile, discrimination lawsuits have dropped in the last 10 years, according to the EEOC.

• Colleges and universities help prevent retaliation lawsuits by encouraging whistle-blowing as a means of early internal correction.

During the seminar, Sokolow and Schuster also reviewed recent retaliation cases involving colleges and universities and predicted how the cases would shape any future cases.

If you missed the live event, you can order the program in CD or print transcript format, both of which include the presenter's handouts.

Magna Publications is a leading publisher of newsletters and other information products in the higher education segment. Magna also manages onsite and online conferences on topics of interest to higher education.

For more information please contact David Burns, Publisher, Magna Publications, Inc., at 608-227-8109, or dburns@magnapubs.com.