More than $100M in taxpayer money spent on public worker lawsuits each year
The legal settlements and jury awards have come rapid-fire, month after month, year after year: $400,000 to the public works employee who claimed a hostile work environment; $2.1 million to the fire inspector whom a jury found had been harassed; $200,000 to the former police dispatcher who said she was improperly fired; $3.65 million to the…
More from my site
President Trump Meets Pope Francis at Vatican
Female Dragonflies Fake Death to Avoid Sex
N.J. teachers layoffs must be based on seniority, not performance, judge rules
New Jersey Task Force Heads to Florida for Hurricane Operations
The IRS has spoken. Can you deduct your 2018 property tax prepayments?
Kim Guadagno vows to slash your N.J. property taxes by as much as $3,000
Russians sentenced to prison in largest hacking prosecution in U.S. history
State Drops Hammer On ‘Ruthless’ Doctors Profiting Off Opioid Addiction
Here’s N.J. lawmaker’s plan to legalize recreational marijuana after Christie leaves
Christie expands public worker fertility insurance coverage to include lesbians
“The largest settlements and awards reflect egregious or systemic bad behavior by government employees toward subordinates.”
That being the case, then there’s a scintilla of legitimacy to these cases. If an employee is treated improperly, and is met only with wagon circling by superiors when they report it within internal channels, their only recourse may be litigation. Employees need to be protected from this, but Assemblyman Carroll is correct. Payouts need to be realistically proportionate and lawyer costs capped.
It would be interesting to see if any of the offending parties are repeat offenders, also how many of them got to keep their jobs, to harass again as if nothing ever happened. Leaving their municipality open for future suits and payouts.