To comply with the Disclosing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act of 2018, every employer in Maryland with 50 or more employees must now report sexual harassment settlements to the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (“MCCR”). The MCCR will soon publish the aggregate statistics of settlements...
On the heels of an emotional Dec. 7 press conference held in support of Catholic Church child sexual abuse survivors, news broke that Maryland Senator Will Smith would support a new bill giving survivors the chance to sue their perpetrators. The bill, previously known as the “Hidden Predator...
As a boy of 12, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano was sexually assaulted by a man near his home. For years, he carried around feelings of shame about what happened to him, as his family never talked about the abuse as Spano grew up. Now, he is sharing his story and inspiring others to have the courage...
Sexual assault survivors of former Michigan State doctor Larry Nassar seek accountability in recent lawsuit against the University and its Board of Trustees. The women claim school officials made secret decisions to withhold more than 6,000 documents in an investigation into how Nassar got away...
In a recent lawsuit filed against Sony, a number of female Sony employees have accused the entertainment and gaming giant of workplace harassment and sexism. The class action lawsuit, originally initiated in November 2021, continues to grow, with eight (8) additional women joining the class most...
As the recently-enacted New York Adult Survivors Act takes effect, survivors of sexual abuse have a new one-year window to file their claims. The look-back bill became effective in November 2022, and since then, many claims have already been filed. These include cases against high-profile individuals...
The Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) has been around for decades, but one of the consequences of the #MeToo movement has been a widespread recognition that allowing employers to force survivors of sexual assault and harassment into arbitration is a real problem. Not only do arbitration agreements...
An investigation by The Guardian has uncovered a massive cover-up of child sex abuse by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker confessed to his superiors that he had molested multiple teens over a 15-year period, but has never been charged.
Several accusations of...
A retired New Orleans priest admitted to kidnapping and raping a 16 year old in 1975.
On the eve of a criminal trial against retired New Orleans priest Lawrence Hecker, the 93-year old clergyman pleaded guilty to child rape and kidnapping charges filed against him. Much like Reverend Gilbert...
In the largest clergy sexual abuse settlement involving the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay $880 million.
After months of negotiations, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (AOLA) agreed to pay $880 million to approximately 1,300 survivors of sexual abuse by priests it...
In a new lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General, three bishops from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo are accused of covering up sexual abuse by over two dozen priests. The allegations, which purportedly took place for years, violate church policy and state law.
The Attorney General’s...
Following the implementation of the Child Victims Act in August 2019, over 1,300 sex abuse lawsuits have been filed in the state of New York. The Act essentially extends the statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims for New Yorkers, providing people up to age 55 the ability to file a civil...
In a monumental change in Catholic church law, Pope Francis has approved revisions to the penalties for sexual abuse of minors and pornography. The church’s penal system had been in place since the 1980s. With the recent rewrite, the laws will provide for stricter and clearer penalties for clergy...
PBS reports that as college students returned to campus amid the pandemic this past fall, they faced a heightened risk of sexual assault on campus. Larger universities, such as Virginia Tech, University of North Carolina, and Indiana University, reported an increase in sexual violence incidents...
According to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, women who experienced sexual violence or workplace sexual assault have a greater risk for developing high blood pressure than women who did not. This correlation is “not widely recognized as a contributor to women’s...
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno (Fresno Diocese) announces imminent bankruptcy filing after 154 clergy abuse claims were filed against it. Many of these decades-old claims were revived under the California Assembly Bill 218, which opened a window of time for survivors to file suit against...
A recent decision in the Fourth Circuit appellate court further defined the “evidentiary routes” available to employee plaintiffs bringing same-sex sexual harassment claims. This type of harassment in the workplace is prohibited by Title VII.
In Roberts v. Glenn Industrial Group, Inc., the court...
School resource officers are present in about half of schools across the country as many school districts are seeking ways to help keep students safe. However, for students at Lansing Eastern High School in Michigan, their protected learning environment was compromised. School resource officer...
After a former 61-year old teacher’s aide pleaded guilty to inappropriately touching a young special education student, he was sentenced to probation. The aide allegedly repeatedly committed these crimes from 2015 to 2017, when the victim was just 11 years old.
The victim’s parents became suspicious...
Following a sexual assault lawsuit filed last year against Loyola University Chicago, seven more women have come forward alleging mismanagement of their sexual assault complaints by the university. One of the survivor plaintiffs who joined the suit said the school dissuaded her from going to the...
