A Cultural Reckoning
There has been a seismic shift in the cultural norms around assault, harassment, consent, and other topics associated with the #MeToo movement. For the first time, men and women are holding the powerful accountable for actions that crossed boundaries or left victims feeling vulnerable.
With this new understanding of cultural norms, especially as they relate to relationships between employees/subordinates and employers or people with professional power, people are left wondering how employment discrimination or harassment litigation has changed. Thankfully, there are answers to this pressing concern.
As The Melton Law Firm has discussed, harassment is both provable and actionable. In this piece, I will discuss the topic of harassment and how to take action if you are a victim of this crime in the workplace:
What is harassment?
Litigation around harassment has included multiple definitions or frameworks depending on jurisprudence. However, certain principles remain true. Most definitions of harassment require pervasive and impactful actions. In the workforce, these actions must be tangibly impactful to the point that it affects your health or work performance. This definitional bright line, though not without its faults or flaws, is used to prevent small, annoying actions from being claimed as harassment in lawsuits or settlements.
Additionally, many claims of harassment have been defined in their positioning as discrimination against specific protected classes. It is possible for people not in protected classes (of gender, race, religion, ability, or otherwise) to still experience harassment; it is just much more difficult without those characteristics being present in a harassment case.
An additional characteristic to consider, though it is by nature ambiguous, is that the behavior is unwanted. Though specific company guidelines may differ, it is not a crime in of itself to pursue a workplace relationship. However, pursuing a romantic interest that is not matched or explicitly wanted, is obviously and sadly harassment. Be sure to consider how jokes or compliments are taken by your colleagues if you want to avoid contributing to harassment culture. On the flip side, make it as best known as possible if you are experiencing or hearing behavior that you find inappropriate or uncomfortable.
How is harassment proven?
Though every case differs, broadly speaking, it is best to establish a chronology of when harassing behavior begin (or, if it still continues). This will allow your legal counsel to paint a picture to a judge or jury of the purpose, nature, and context of the bad actions.
Additionally, speaking with other employees or subordinates will be beneficial. If they are willing to testify or act as a witness, agreeing that the boss or powerful figure was inappropriate, it will strengthen your case and prevent or stymie accusations that a person is making a false allegation.
Of course, any evidence such as texts, photographs, recordings, or other physical collections of proof is incredibly useful for your legal representation. The worst thing to happen to a sexual harassment case is to turn into a he-said, she-said dispute.
Read MoreWhy Do Drainage Systems Matter?
Do you have mildew issues, especially in your basement? Have you struggled with standing water in your front lawn? Are mosquitoes killing you with their pesky bites?
There may be a root cause: drainage issues. Water collection is a natural and essential process for a home to experience. However, ideally, the water would only partially collect to water the lawn and nourish plants. Excess water is designed to drain to the streets and away from your home’s yards and foundation.
What Are Drainage Systems
Drainage systems include devices like gutters and spouts meant to pool water and push it to collect away from a home. We will explain later why it is important to not collect near your home!
Exterior rainwater drainage is meant to catch water falling onto your roof and channel it off the roof, through pipes, and into the street. Another important aspect of exterior house drainage systems regards the home’s slope and grading. These terms describe the angle of the ground outside of your home, ideally (and legally required to be) angled to prevent standing water in your lawn.
There are other drainage options that may be employed in your house’s landscaping plans, dependent upon the design and needs of your home. These include complex options like in-ground drainage systems that require a higher amount of construction and cost.
The Impacts of a Drainage System
If a drainage system is improperly installed, fails to drain away water, or is significantly blocked, it can be harmful to the health of your lawn and to the structural integrity of your house’s foundation.
If water does not drain, and small puddles turn into standing water, plants may struggle to grow. The water can also seep into your foundation, causing cracks and damaging your home. The problem is even worse with temperature changes, in which water can freeze — and expand — inside of the cracks.
Standing water from poor drainage can also seep into your basement, causing mold and mildew to collect within the pipes and walls of your home. The potentially detrimental health effects of mildew in your home are obvious, but sometimes the cause of such a problem is not — might be faulty pipes, leaking issue, or as we have stated, foundation issues. Circumventing the issue entirely is your best option, and that can only be done by hiring a qualified professional company like Daybreaker Landscapes to take care of your drainage issues.
What to Do with Drainage Issues
Lawn grading and sloping is an incredibly intensive process for lawn service amateurs. The stakes are high as well. If you make an error with regrading your lawn to better channel off the water, you may permanently/drastically damage the foundation of your home or make your standing water issues worse.
Your best bet is to trust the professionals to assess your drainage issues. Something as simple as leaves blocking drains from properly clearing out water from a gutter could be the issue causing your severe drainage issues. On the other hand, you may need advanced solutions for an advanced problem. No matter what, leave it to the people who know what they are doing.
Read MoreWhy More Lawyers Are Better Than One
There’s a lot of comfort in going to a single lawyer with his own small practice when seeking a divorce. “This feels pretty comfy,” you might think, and that’s just what you’re looking for when your house is in disorder. You want comfy, and here’s the small office of your local lawyer, and he or she seems nice, and isn’t that all you need anyway?
When it comes to divorce, that’s a definitive “no.” What you need is the best lawyer, not the one with the comfiest office (although that’s a great bonus if you find it with a great lawyer attached as well).
In fact, when you’re pursuing a divorce, and particularly when you’re worried it will be nasty, what you really need is not one lawyer that you like but a big law firm.
Some people are reticent to go to big law firms for some reason. They worry they’ll get lost and their case forgotten, that they’ll call for information and never talk to a real person with a real update.
That can be the case at some big firms, and you should be careful about which firm you choose for that reason, but a firm is exactly what you need.
Why? Why go with a law firm with multiple lawyers instead of that single small office lawyer you liked?
There are a lot of answers to those questions. First, having multiple lawyers is a sign of success. You want your divorce lawyer to give you the best legal assistance, right? Well, then you want a divorce lawyer that is connected to a firm that has proven over and over they know how to win for their clients.
You also want a law firm with the resources to handle your case. Divorce is complex, and your lawyer may need to use a great deal of knowledge and skills to get you the best outcome. Can that single lawyer pull that off? Maybe, but you have to hope in a way you don’t with a bigger firm.
Perhaps the best reason, though, is that a law firm with multiple lawyers can rely on the experience and expertise of multiple lawyers. A law firm with several lawyers can give your case to the lawyer that knows best how to work with the specifics of your case. You don’t have to wonder if your lawyer knows how to handle a complex custody case; at a firm with several lawyers, you’ll know your lawyer is an expert in that area.
Just look at the breadth of issues a law firm like Kessler & Solomiany, LLC can handle, and then compare that to what you see on that individual lawyer’s site. A bigger law firm can use its team to give you the best outcome, while that single lawyer can only rely on what he or she knows and their individual experience.
When you look at it like that, the choice should be obvious. Just ask your lawyer from your bigger firm to meet you in a more comfy location than their office.
Read MoreMemories of crashes
I was just reading about a crash that killed a pedestrian around Fort Worth today, and it made me so sad. I always get so upset thinking about such things. How can people be so reckless? You know?
Stories like that, they always bring back thoughts of friends I’ve lost through tragedies, particularly cars. I’ve had more than my share of loss due to other people driving without regard for others. My sister, Sarah, when she was just twelve, she was hit by a car. Thank God, she survived, but she still has lasting problems due to that. Her early onset arthritis I’m convinced came about because of that accident.
Then, my friend Nick in college died crossing the street. It was a big party weekend, and someone, of course, was driving drunk. He went to jail for it, and I bet that ruined his life, so that’s really two lives that were ended by that accident.
I just don’t know what to do about such things. On some level, I want some vengeance for the victim. I want their family to sue whoever did this, to take them for everything. I have a good mind to call up that family and recommend a lawyer (another friend had some success with these lawyers, so I have a number handy).
But then, I think about that poor boy who hit Nick. I remember seeing him afterward, during the whole process when they were charging him and gathering evidence. He was broken, believe me. I don’t know how you cope with making a mistake like that, and then prison on top of it. And as far as I know, Nick’s family may have sued him too, or his family at least. Was that fair? I just don’t know. I can’t help but feel angry for a victim like Nick, but I hurt for the boys like the one who hit him too.
Was the person who hit that pedestrian in Fort Worth as easy to sympathize with? I don’t know. I couldn’t finish the article, so I didn’t see if the driver was drunk or speeding. I don’t know if they were simply not paying attention or if the pedestrian stepped out in front of them. Maybe I don’t want to know. I don’t want to put that burden on myself, to decide, even if just it’s a decision just for myself.
What I want is to let such stories go and not think about them. I don’t want to make the associations I always make with my own life, and I don’t want to imagine every victim as Nick or Sarah. I want to just let it out and let it go.
That’s why I’m going to start writing here. Hopefully, putting everything down here whenever I start remembering and getting upset, will help me do more of that letting go. I want to put it on this page and then forget it. I hope it works.
Read MoreMedical Malpractice: Surgical Errors
You go to the doctors to help treat your medical condition, but sadly, there are instances where the doctors do you more harm than good, like on the instances of medical malpractice.
Medical malpractice happens when a medical professional who has the duty of care to a patient has violated that duty of care, either through action or action, and this violation has resulted into the harm of the patient. According to the website of Russo, Russo & Slania, P.C., negligent medical professionals can be held accountable and forced to provide much-needed compensation to the victims through a medical malpractice lawsuit.
There are different negligent acts, such as misdiagnosis, medication error, and lack of informed consent. But whatever negligent act you have experienced, it doesn’t change the fact that it has health and monetary consequences. One of the most devastating, both in terms of health and monetary consequence, is surgical error.
A surgical error happens when a medical professional has made a mistake before, during, and after a surgical procedure. This is an extremely dangerous mistake because it can lead to the rise of new complications and worsening of existing ones, and the worst thing about it is the fact that the patient doesn’t deserve it. It has only happened because of the negligence of a medical professional.
Below are some of the most common surgical errors:
Anesthesia Error – Too much or too little anesthesia can have devastating effects, including brain damage and extreme pain during surgery.
Foreign Object Error – Surgical tools that are left in the body can be dangerous. Aside from the obvious pain, leaving foreign objects inside the body can lead to organ punctures and infections.
Nerve Damage Error – Speaking of organ punctures, foreign objects are not just the culprits of such, as even the wrong or incompetent use of surgical tools during surgery can also cause such injuries. The most common culprit is the scalpel.
Site Operation Error – This may sound ridiculous because of how incompetent it is, but operating on the wrong body part does happen, resulting into the extraction of the wrong kidney, amputation of the wrong limb, and many other scenarios.
Read MoreJoin our Circle
