EEOC MUST PAY $1 MILLION DOLLARS IN ATTORNEY'S FEES

FOR FILING FRIVOLOUS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE

U.S. District Judge Tevrizian has delivered the U.S.  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission a stern rebuke and ordered the agency to pay more than $1 million dollars in attorney fees and expenses to a Pasadena law firm that had been charged with sexual harassment.

The award stems from a November, 2005, judgment that an EEOC sexual harassment suit against the law firm was frivolous. In his order awarding attorney fees on January 13, 2006, Tevrizian found that the "EEOC knew, or unreasonably failed to learn that its investigation, lawsuit and primary 'claimants' all were part of a scheme" by former law firm associates to destroy the firm. Tevrizian said that the EEOC used "increasingly vexatious and improper tactics" in pursing its case. The EEOC is appealing the court's award.