Federal employee wins large award. Complaint, an employee of Homeland Security, filed an EEO alleging non-sexual harassment based on sex (female), reprisal and hostile environment. An EEOC Administrative Judge (AJ) entered an award in favor of the federal employee.
The Agency filed an appeal with the challenging the decision to award Complainant $423,116.35 in compensatory damages and $131,262.50 in attorney’s fees. After reviewing the record, the EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations (OFO) agreed that there was no clear indication in the AJ’s damages decision to support an overage of $9,112.50 for the attorney’s fees and modified the decision to award the actual amount claimed in the fee petition submitted by Complainant. As a result, Complainant was awarded a total of $200,000.00 in non-pecuniary compensatory damages, $223,116.35 in pecuniary compensatory damages, and a modified $122,150.00 in attorney’s fees and costs.
Lauralee C. v. Dep’t of Homeland Security, EEOC Appeal No. 0720150002 (Sept. 25, 2017)
https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/migrated_files/decisions/0720150002.txt
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