What Is a Harassment, Discrimination or Retaliation Case Worth?
Predictably, the answer is: it depends. But there are some guidelines. Broadly speaking, every harassment, discrimination, or retaliation case in New Jersey has three components of recovery: compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees. Compensatory damages are designed to pay a plaintiff for her loss. This includes lost pay and emotional suffering. Lost pay is fairly easy to calculate: take what you were earning in your old job, figure out how long you were unemployed, and then determine if you are earning more or less in your new job. That’s called “back pay.” The law also allows for “front pay” in certain situations; front pay is lost salary into the future after a jury enters a verdict. Typically, a successful plaintiff is fortunate to get months to a few years of front pay. Compensatory damages for emotional suffering are difficult to predict and have a wide range from jury verdicts. For example, sexual harassment verdicts in New Jersey have awarded as little as $5,
