Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in Virginia

Client harassing aides

I am the owner of a business that employs home health aides to go into client's homes to provide homemaking services. An elderly male client has made lewd comments and groped 2 of my employees. After the first incident we confronted him and he vowed that it would not happen again. We plan to terminate our relationship with this client. What liability do I have as an employer? What recourse, if any, do my employees have against him?


Asked on 11/22/07, 3:43 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Client harassing aides

Shouldn't be any, if you're referring to terminating this old groper as one of your clients. Technically, groping an unwilling "gropee", so to speak, is an unprivileged touching and therefore is recognized in the law as a type of battery which can be classified as either a civil or criminal offense.

However, whether your employees would want to have the old man criminally prosecuted or to sue him civilly for damages that would likely prove problematical, are prospects on which they should likely take a pass.

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Answered on 11/22/07, 5:45 pm


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