Encino Workplace Sexual Harassment Lawyer

Sexual Harassment Law in Encino Workplaces

Sexual harassment in professional environments along the Ventura Corridor takes forms that employees frequently don’t recognize as legally actionable:

• Sustained unwanted attention from a supervisor that goes unaddressed by HR.
• Client conduct that the employer tolerates because the relationship is commercially valuable.
• A work environment where sexually demeaning comments have become normalized enough that employees assume complaints won’t be taken seriously.

California law does not require that harassment be tolerated, normalized, or repeated before it becomes illegal. A single severe incident can meet the threshold. And the employer’s failure to act, whether because it didn’t want to risk a client relationship, didn’t believe the complaint, or simply looked away, does not insulate it from liability.

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) applies to all employers with one or more employees and provides significantly stronger protections than federal law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act applies to employers with 15 or more employees and is enforced by the EEOC. Our experienced HBK Lawyers handle FEHA and federal claims from our Encino office at 16000 Ventura Blvd., Suite 780.

The Two Legal Forms of Sexual Harassment

Quid Pro Quo Harassment 

Occurs when a person in authority makes job benefits contingent on sexual conduct, offering a promotion in exchange for compliance, threatening termination unless demands are met, or conditioning a performance review on a personal relationship. A single incident is sufficient. When a supervisor commits quid pro quo harassment, the employer is strictly liable regardless of whether it knew of the harassment.

Hostile Work Environment Harassment 

Work harassment exists when unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, or conduct based on sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation, is severe or frequent enough to alter the conditions of employment. In professional environments, this frequently takes the form of persistent unwanted communications, sexually charged comments that go unchallenged in group settings, or sustained personal attention that continues after the employee has made their discomfort clear. The harasser can be a supervisor, co-worker, client, or vendor. When evaluating these types of cases, California courts apply a reasonable person standard.

Who Can Be Held Liable

• The employer is strictly liable when a supervisor commits harassment, regardless of whether the company knew of it. When harassment is committed by a co-worker, contractor, or client, the employer is liable if it knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to act appropriately.
• The individual harasser can be personally sued under FEHA, separate from any claim against the employer. This applies to supervisors and, in some circumstances, to co-workers who participated in or enabled the harassment.
• Third parties, including vendors, clients, and contractors, can create employer liability when the employer controls the environment where the harassment occurs and fails to address it. In Encino’s professional services and financial sectors, where client relationships are prioritized, employer inaction in response to client-perpetrated harassment is a recognized pattern.

Retaliation for Reporting Harassment

California law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who report sexual harassment, cooperate with an investigation, or support a co-worker who made a complaint. Retaliation creates an independent legal claim with its own damages, including lost wages, emotional distress, and punitive damages, separate from the underlying harassment claim.

In Encino’s professional environments, post-complaint retaliation commonly takes the form of performance documentation that begins after the report, removal from client relationships, and social isolation from team functions. These actions are legally actionable regardless of whether the employer characterizes them as business decisions.

What You Share with Us Stays Confidential

Attorney-client privilege protects every word from the moment we speak, and there is no cost or obligation to find out what your case may be worth.

Free Consultation
Call 888-928-8425

What You Can Recover

• Lost wages and benefits: Income lost as a result of the harassment, including wages lost from forced resignation, demotion, or termination connected to the harassment or to reporting it.
• Emotional distress damages: Compensation for anxiety, depression, humiliation, and psychological harm. These damages are frequently the largest component of a sexual harassment recovery and are available under FEHA without requiring physical injury.
• Medical and therapy costs: Reimbursement for mental health treatment, counseling, and related medical expenses resulting from the harassment.
• Punitive damages. Available when the employer or individual harasser acted with malice, oppression, or conscious disregard for the employee’s rights. In cases where management participated in or deliberately ignored known harassment, punitive damages can be substantial.
• Attorney fees and costs: Prevailing employees recover attorney fees from the employer under FEHA. You absorb no legal costs if we win.
• Injunctive relief: Court orders requiring the employer to implement corrective action, modify policies, or reinstate a wrongfully terminated employee.

Steps That Protect Your Claim

• Document as it happens. Record dates, times, locations, what was said or done, who was present, and how you responded. Contemporaneous written records, including notes, texts, and emails, carry more weight than memory alone.
• Report in writing to HR or your supervisor. A written complaint creates a record that the employer had noticed. Verbal-only reports allow employers to claim no knowledge.
• Do not resign before speaking with an attorney. Resignation can affect lost wages calculations. In some circumstances, California treats a forced resignation as constructive termination, but the analysis is fact-specific and should be made with legal guidance.
• Contact an attorney before filing with the CRD or EEOC. Administrative complaints must be filed correctly before pursuing a lawsuit. An error at this stage can limit your remedies. The filing deadline to file with the CRD is 3 years from the date of harassment, and 300 days for EEOC federal claims.