At Greenberg Gross LLP, our Sacramento workplace sexual assault lawyers represent survivors who have experienced sexual assault connected to their employment. Our attorneys investigate what occurred, preserve critical evidence, examine the conduct of the individuals and organizations involved, and pursue civil claims designed to hold responsible parties accountable.
Workplace sexual assault can leave a survivor facing difficult decisions about personal safety, employment, reporting, and legal action at the same time. The legal issues may also extend beyond the person who committed the assault.
Depending on the circumstances, our Sacramento workplace sexual assault attorneys can investigate what the employer knew, whether earlier warning signs or complaints existed, how the organization responded, and whether the survivor experienced retaliation after reporting what happened.
Start your journey towards justice today by scheduling your free claim consultation
Table of contents
- Why Choose Greenberg Gross LLP for a Workplace Sexual Assault Case?
- What Should You Do After a Sexual Assault at Work?
- What Is Considered Workplace Sexual Assault?
- Workplace Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Are Not the Same
- Can an Employer Be Held Responsible for Workplace Sexual Assault?
- What Did the Organization Know Before the Assault?
- How Our Sacramento Workplace Sexual Assault Lawyers Build a Case
- What If Your Employer Retaliates After You Report a Sexual Assault?
- A Civil Sexual Assault Lawsuit Is Different From a Criminal Case
- What Compensation Can You Receive in a Workplace Sexual Assault Lawsuit?
- How Long Do You Have to File a Workplace Sexual Assault Claim in California?
- FAQs About Workplace Sexual Assault in Sacramento
- Speak With the Sacramento Workplace Sexual Assault Lawyers at Greenberg Gross to Learn More
Why Choose Greenberg Gross LLP for a Workplace Sexual Assault Case?
Sexual assault cases demand attorneys who can investigate sensitive facts without losing sight of the evidence necessary to establish legal responsibility. When the conduct is connected to employment, the investigation can also require examining workplace relationships, internal reporting procedures, management decisions, and information controlled by the employer.
Greenberg Gross LLP is a trial law firm prepared to pursue high-stakes cases against individuals and institutions. Our past case results include a $4.1 million settlement with a Sacramento private school involving sexual abuse by a teacher. Although that matter did not involve workplace sexual assault, it reflects our experience pursuing institutional accountability in a serious sexual abuse case here in Sacramento.
Every case presents different facts and potential defendants. Our attorneys determine what the evidence supports, identify viable legal claims, and prepare the case for litigation when that is necessary to pursue accountability.
What Should You Do After a Sexual Assault at Work?
After a workplace sexual assault, prioritize your immediate safety and medical needs, preserve relevant evidence when possible, and consider speaking confidentially with our attorneys about your rights. Depending on the circumstances, reporting the assault to your employer or law enforcement may also be an option, but a police report is not necessarily required before an attorney can evaluate potential civil claims.
The period immediately following an assault can be overwhelming, but you do not need to understand every legal issue before seeking help.
When possible, preserve information connected to the incident. This may include text messages, emails, photographs, work schedules, calendar entries, travel information, or communications with the person involved. If you reported what happened to a supervisor, Human Resources, coworker, friend, family member, or another person, document those communications as well.
Be sure you don’t improperly access workplace systems or take confidential company materials you are not authorized to possess. If litigation becomes necessary, our team can use formal legal procedures to seek relevant records controlled by an employer or another organization.
What Is Considered Workplace Sexual Assault?
Workplace sexual assault generally involves nonconsensual sexual contact or conduct that has a connection to a person's employment. It is more serious than inappropriate workplace behavior and can create civil, employment, and potentially criminal legal issues.
The person responsible need not be the survivor's direct supervisor or coworker. Depending on the circumstances, workplace sexual assault can involve:
- Supervisors or executives
- Coworkers
- Clients or customers
- Vendors or contractors
- Other individuals encountered because of the survivor's employment
The assault also does not have to occur inside an office, store, or other regular worksite to raise employment-related legal issues. Conduct may occur during business travel, conferences, employer-sponsored events, client meetings, work-related social gatherings, or in employer-arranged transportation or lodging.
Determining which legal claims are available requires examining both what occurred and its relationship to the survivor's employment. Our team can investigate your situation and explain your unique legal rights. Call us today to share your situation.
Workplace Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Are Not the Same
Sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment can overlap, but the terms describe different forms of misconduct and can involve different legal claims.
Sexual harassment under California employment law can include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other prohibited verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Harassment does not have to involve physical assault to violate the law.
Sexual assault involves nonconsensual sexual contact and can create separate civil and criminal consequences. A workplace assault can also constitute sexual harassment when the facts satisfy the applicable employment law requirements.
This distinction matters because a single incident can give rise to multiple claims against different parties. Our attorneys will determine which laws apply rather than treating every workplace sexual misconduct case as interchangeable.
Employees dealing with other forms of sexual harassment and hostile work environments in Sacramento can learn more on our Sacramento Workplace Harassment Lawyer page.
Can an Employer Be Held Responsible for Workplace Sexual Assault?
An employer is not automatically responsible for every sexual assault committed by someone connected to the workplace. Whether an employer or another organization can be held legally accountable depends on who committed the assault, the circumstances surrounding it, what the organization knew, and the legal theories supported by the evidence.
Our attorneys may investigate questions such as:
- What role did the person who committed the assault hold?
- Did supervisors or Human Resources receive similar earlier complaints?
- Were there previous reports of inappropriate or threatening behavior?
- How did the employer respond to any earlier warning signs?
- Did management follow its own policies after receiving a complaint?
- Are negligent hiring, retention, or supervision issues implicated by the facts?
- Did the organization take appropriate action after learning what happened?
- Did the survivor experience retaliation after making a report?
These questions can shift the investigation beyond the assault itself and toward the decisions made by people with the authority to prevent, address, or respond to workplace misconduct.
An employer's response after an assault can also raise separate California employment law concerns. A survivor should not be punished for engaging in a legally protected activity, nor should an organization attempt to solve the problem by disadvantaging the person who reported the misconduct.
What Did the Organization Know Before the Assault?
A survivor knows what happened to them. What they frequently cannot know is what happened inside the organization before the assault occurred. That distinction can become critical.
An employer may possess prior complaints, Human Resources records, disciplinary documents, internal communications, or other information concerning the individual accused of misconduct. Supervisors may have observed concerning behavior. Other employees may have raised issues that were handled informally or never disclosed to the survivor.
The existence of prior complaints should never be assumed. Part of our job is determining whether such evidence exists and, when legally available, obtaining it.
If earlier warning signs are uncovered, the investigation then turns to what responsible decision-makers knew and what they did with that information. Did anyone investigate? Was discipline imposed? Were safeguards implemented? Was the alleged wrongdoer allowed to remain in a position that created foreseeable risks?
These questions can help determine whether the case involves only individual misconduct or whether evidence also supports claims involving institutional failures.
How Our Sacramento Workplace Sexual Assault Lawyers Build a Case
Workplace sexual assault frequently occurs without an independent eyewitness. The absence of someone who directly observed the assault does not mean there is no evidence to evaluate.
Our attorneys review the complete evidentiary record of what occurred. Depending on the case, relevant evidence can include:
- Text messages, emails, and other contemporaneous communications
- Reports made to coworkers, supervisors, Human Resources, friends, or family members
- Medical or treatment records
- Workplace schedules and time records
- Security, access, or building-entry records
- Available surveillance footage
- Business travel and employer-sponsored event records
- Witness testimony concerning events before or after the assault
- Internal complaints and investigation materials
- Communications documenting the employer's response
Timing and context can be particularly important. Communications immediately before or after an incident, changes in workplace behavior, reporting records, and subsequent actions by management can contribute to the overall evidentiary picture even when no single document proves the entire case.
When evidence is held by an employer or another defendant, litigation can provide formal discovery tools to seek documents, obtain testimony under oath, and examine how the organization handled the matter internally.
This is where our team’s broader experience in high-stakes employment litigation in Sacramento can become particularly important. Our attorneys do not evaluate workplace sexual assault solely as an isolated event; we examine the surrounding employment relationship and organizational response to determine the full scope of potential legal responsibility.
What If Your Employer Retaliates After You Report a Sexual Assault?
Reporting workplace sexual assault can create understandable concerns about what will happen to your job. California and federal employment laws prohibit certain forms of retaliation when employees engage in legally protected activity.
Retaliation does not always take the form of immediate termination. Depending on the circumstances, concerns can arise when a report is followed by demotion, heightened discipline, reduced responsibilities, undesirable reassignment, exclusion from professional opportunities, or other materially adverse treatment.
Our attorneys examine what changed after the report, who knew about it, and whether the employer's explanation for subsequent decisions is supported by its records. When retaliation follows workplace sexual assault, it can create additional legal claims beyond those arising from the underlying misconduct.
A Civil Sexual Assault Lawsuit Is Different From a Criminal Case
A survivor's civil legal options do not necessarily depend on whether prosecutors bring criminal charges against the perpetrator.
Criminal cases are pursued by government prosecutors and focus on whether criminal law was violated. Civil lawsuits are brought by survivors and can seek compensation and accountability from individuals or organizations that bear legal responsibility. The proceedings also involve different legal standards and procedures.
For that reason, if there was no criminal prosecution or conviction, our attorneys can still evaluate potential civil claims arising from workplace sexual assault.
What Compensation Can You Receive in a Workplace Sexual Assault Lawsuit?
The harm caused by workplace sexual assault can affect a survivor's health, emotional well-being, employment, and financial security. The compensation available depends on the claims involved and the losses supported by the evidence.
A civil case may seek recovery for medical care, counseling or other mental health treatment, lost income, diminished earning capacity, and emotional harm. When an assault disrupts a survivor's employment, damages may also account for legally recoverable career-related losses.
Punitive damages may be available in qualifying cases when the evidence satisfies the applicable legal requirements. If the circumstances also support employment claims involving harassment, retaliation, or another workplace violation, additional remedies may apply.
How Long Do You Have to File a Workplace Sexual Assault Claim in California?
There is no single filing deadline that applies to every workplace sexual assault case. The time available depends on the claims being pursued and the circumstances surrounding the assault.
For example, employment claims brought under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act may require filing an administrative complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) before a lawsuit can proceed. Civil claims arising directly from sexual assault can be governed by different statutes of limitations, and federal employment claims can involve separate administrative requirements.
Because missing an applicable deadline can affect the right to pursue a claim, survivors should seek legal advice as soon as they feel able.
Start your journey towards justice today by scheduling your free claim consultation
FAQs About Workplace Sexual Assault in Sacramento
Do I have to report the assault to HR before contacting a lawyer?
No. You can speak with an attorney before deciding whether or how to make an internal workplace report. Our attorneys can explain how reporting decisions may affect your circumstances and potential claims.
What if the person who assaulted me was a client or customer?
Workplace sexual assault is not limited to misconduct by coworkers or supervisors. When a client, customer, contractor, or another third party is involved, we can evaluate the relationship to the workplace and whether the employer's conduct creates potential legal responsibility.
Can I have a claim if the assault happened during business travel?
Potentially. Conduct occurring at a conference, during employer-sponsored travel, at a work event, or elsewhere away from the regular workplace can still have an employment connection. The specific circumstances determine which claims may apply.
Will I have to discuss what happened publicly if I file a lawsuit?
Civil lawsuits generally create public court records, although certain information may be protected by law depending on the circumstances. Our attorneys can discuss privacy concerns and any available procedures before you decide whether to pursue litigation.
Speak With the Sacramento Workplace Sexual Assault Lawyers at Greenberg Gross to Learn More
What happened should not allow an individual—or an organization that failed to meet its legal responsibilities—to avoid responsibility. A civil investigation can examine the assault, the circumstances that allowed it to occur, and how those in positions of authority responded before and afterward.
At Greenberg Gross LLP, our team brings serious trial experience to cases involving sexual misconduct and institutional accountability. We approach these matters with discretion while pursuing the evidence necessary to determine who is legally responsible and pursue the justice you deserve.
Call (916) 905-5525 or contact Greenberg Gross LLP online to schedule a confidential consultation with a Sacramento workplace sexual assault lawyer today.