New York City Personal Injury Blog

New York employers that fail to adequately address sexual harassment complaints could leave themselves open to gender discrimination lawsuits. In fact, one law professor says that the current sexual harassment scandal at Nike illustrates the dangers of ignoring such claims.

According to an article in The New York Times, women working at Nike have endured sexual harassment for years. Some examples of the alleged behavior include a manager writing an email about an employee's breasts, a manager boasting about having condoms in his bag and a manager calling a female employee a sexist, derogatory name. These incidents were reported to human resources, but nothing was done. This is possibly because the company felt the complaints did not rise to the high legal standard for sexual harassment.

While federal statistics show that sexual harassment complaints are going down, many women in New York City and across the country continue to experience unwanted advances and other forms of harassment on the job. In 2017, the number of official sexual harassment complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state agencies was approximately 9,600, a 41 percent drop from 16,000 in 1997. From a high of 24 complaints per 100,000 women employees, in 2017, the number hovered at around 9 per 100,000.

However, many experts say that these statistics are less likely to reflect an equivalent decline in workplace sexual harassment. Instead, they say, 95 percent of companies now have private, in-house processes to deal with such complaints. Another 82 percent have a protocol for handling investigations into sexual harassment. This means that most investigations and complaints today are not reflected in public statistics. However, surveys also show that up to 75 percent of instances of sexual harassment are never reported at all.

Distracted driving accidents are becoming increasingly common in New York and around the country, and the popularity of mobile electronic devices is the reason according to most experts. Accident data gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveals that distracted driving claimed 3,477 lives and caused 391,000 injuries on America's roads in 2015, but some road safety groups feel that the true death and injury toll could be much higher.

Experts are divided over these statistics because it can be difficult for police officers to determine whether or not motorists were distracted when they crashed. Unlike drivers who have consumed alcohol or taken drugs, distracted motorists provide law enforcement with few clues. Investigating these accidents can also be challenging because they tend to take place at high speeds and damage is often catastrophic.

New Yorkers involved in an auto collision are usually motivated to get their insurance claims settled as quickly as possible. In most instances, adjusters and insurance lawyers are happy to oblige if victims are willing to quickly sign away their rights to sue in the immediate aftermath of a crash. While a fast settlement may be tempting, it is typically prudent to wait and make sure there are no lingering effects from a collision before considering a final settlement.

Some injuries, such as broken bones or lacerations, are immediately obvious after a traumatic event such as a car crash. Other injuries are more subtle and take time to fully manifest themselves. Pain and soreness after a crash may be revealed in the days after the incident. Just as the morning after a backyard football game can reveal pain, so can the day or two after a crash. Soft tissue injuries, which is the category of injury involving every part of the body that is not a bony mass, are usually treated very conservatively for at least six weeks. Doctors and insurance companies often delay expensive testing that can reveal permanent damage until after rest, physical therapy, and temporary pain management is shown to be ineffective.