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The turn of the seasons and close of the year brings time to reflect on past triumphs and losses and look to new challenges. 2019 brought tumult and conflict as well as victories and celebrations. For the California Civil Rights Law Group, the beginning of the year was cause for jubilation as we celebrated the partnership status of passionate litigator Navruz Avloni. As the year progressed, we said good-bye to esteemed colleagues who left for opportunities out of state and welcomed new team-members and collaborations with distinguished co-counsel. We brought our dedicated brand of advocacy to the fight for the rights of clients against offenders large and small. Sometimes we were victorious and even if we weren’t, we knew we were fighting the good fight.
Our team of attorneys, paralegals and professional staff here in the San Francisco Bay Area are committed to fighting for the rights of individuals who have been the victims of workplace harassment, discrimination or retaliation. Litigation is an arduous process. Sometimes the clients we represent have very straightforward stories of ugly misconduct in the workplace where the actions perpetrated against them by supervisors are so heinous that there is no question of how a jury will decide. At other times, the story is as knotty and convoluted as a ball of yarn batted around by a litter of feral kittens. And even when the victim’s story is straightforward, defense counsel will do their best to try to confuse the issue.
December 30 Ruling
We end the year basking in the December 30th ruling by a US District Court Judge on a defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. In essence, the defendant was asking the judge to throw out our clients’ case before a jury had the chance to hear it. In this case the clients are father and son factory workers, and the defendant is electric car manufacturing behemoth Tesla. The ruling noted that “The facts of this racial discrimination and harassment case are as complex and overlapping as the employment structure the defendants have fabricated.” And concluded: “Plaintiffs allege that racial harassment was so pervasive at the Tesla factory that they heard the N-word on a near-daily basis, including from their supervisors. If a jury credits their evidence that such an environment indeed existed, it could also find that a managing agent necessarily must have known about that environment—and that by failing to correct it, those managing agents ratified the wrongful conduct.”
We are looking forward to all that 2020 has to bring; we are especially looking forward to giving our clients their Seventh Amendment right to have their stories heard by a jury of their peers.
Client Consultations on Sexual Harassment and Race Discrimination
We have experience in successfully representing sexual harassment and race discrimination victims against employers large and small in jury trials and arbitrations. If you have questions about an arbitration agreement, contact the California Civil Rights Law Group at 415-453-4740. With offices in San Francisco, San Anselmo, and Oakland, we can meet conveniently or meet on the phone. All client consultations are strictly confidential.