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obligated to provide legal counsel?
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obligated to provide legal counsel?
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
If a company is sued for sexual harassment, is that company obligated to provide legal counsel to the manager that is being accused?
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » obligated to provide legal counsel?
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obligated to provide legal counsel?
posted at 6/14/1999 8:57 AM EDT
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Posts: 833
First: 6/11/1999 Last: 8/23/2001 |
Not basing my opinion on anything but guts, I'd say "No", unless by contract or agreement.
In some cases, where the company is being held responsible for the actions of a Manager, who may not have acted in the company's best interests, and who may have placed the company in some perilous straits, that company may be a bit hesitant to provide legal counsel, unless it figures to be advantageous to the company. Depending on the circumstances and the state, some managers and Supervisors can be held personally liable by the "victim", or, in the case of a judgement against the company, may be held responsible personally for the company's losses. Supervisor/Manager liability, especially in sexual harassment cases, is a blossoming field, especially in view of a few recent Supreme Court decisions. I don't think the company has an obligation to provide counsel, but there's nothing to say it can't. That Manager needs to speak to someone of authority at the company with one big question: "Do I need a lawyer, other than the company's?" |
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obligated to provide legal counsel?
posted at 6/14/1999 5:29 PM EDT
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Posts: 38
First: 6/9/1999 Last: 10/26/2004 |
Let us assume that the manager has been wrongfully accused of harassment that occurred during the scope of his or her employment.
The answer is: It depends. Does your company have an insurance policy providing for employment discrimination claims coverage? Does your corporation have a policy or a bylaw providing for reimbursement of expenses incurred in the scope of employment? Is there any contractual obligation to provide counsel? If the answer to these questions is no, then there is generally not "right" to have a lawyer at the company's expense. If the employee was properly accused of harassment, even if there was an insurance policy, company policy or bylaw, or contract in place, most courts would conclude that the employee's harassing conduct was outside the scope of employment. Now, two United States Supreme Court decisions last year held (in essence) that harassment by a supervisor was within the scope of employment for purposes of holding the employer liable, but I am not sure that reasoning will hold here. |
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