Florida Sexual Harassment Lawyer

Workplace sexual harassment covers unwelcome sexual advances that affect a person’s employment, from unwanted advances and requests for sexual favors to remarks and behavior that make the workplace hostile. It does not have to involve physical contact, nor does it have to come from a supervisor. A pattern of comments from a coworker can qualify, and so can a single serious incident.

Yormak Employment & Disability Law represents employees across Florida who have been harassed at work. We only represent employees, never employers or insurance companies. Benjamin Yormak is one of the few attorneys in the state who is board-certified as an expert in labor and employment law. If you are unsure whether what happened to you crosses the legal line, contact us for a free consultation.

Federal and State Laws Against Workplace Sexual Harassment

Two laws protect Florida employees from sexual harassment at work: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Florida Civil Rights Act at the state level. Both bar an employer from treating an employee differently because of sex in the terms, conditions, or privileges of the job, and both have long been applied to sexual harassment as conduct these laws forbid.

The two overlap, which often gives a harassed employee more than one avenue for a claim. Title VII applies to larger employers and is enforced through the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Florida Civil Rights Act reaches many of the same employers and is enforced through the Florida Commission on Human Relations.

The law uses a reasonable person standard: it asks whether the conduct was severe or pervasive enough that a reasonable person would find the environment hostile and whether it unreasonably interfered with your work. One serious incident can be enough. So can be a pattern of smaller ones that wear you down over time.

Types of Workplace Sexual Harassment

Quid Pro Quo Harassment

Quid pro quo harassment happens when someone with authority over your job ties an employment decision to a sexual demand. A supervisor offers a promotion, a raise, or a better schedule in exchange for a date or a sexual act, or threatens to fire, demote, or cut an employee’s hours for refusing.

Hostile Work Environment

A hostile work environment forms when unwelcome sexual conduct is serious enough or frequent enough to change the conditions you work under and make the workplace abusive or intimidating. When deciding whether specific conduct crosses the line, courts generally weigh how severe or how pervasive it was.

There’s no standalone “hostile work environment” cause of action in Florida. It’s a form of sex discrimination under Title VII. A hostile work environment is the theory that proves sexual harassment. However, unlike discrimination claims, you do not have to prove you were passed over for a promotion, fired, denied pay, or suffered any tangible economic harm to file. The harassment itself is the cause of offense.

Conduct That Can Constitute Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment covers a wide range of behavior, and physical acts are only part of it. What ties the rest together is that the conduct is unwelcome and based on sex. Here are common examples:

• Comments, jokes, or questions about your body, appearance, or sex life
• Repeated requests for dates or sexual favors after being told no
• Sexually explicit texts, emails, images, or social media messages
• Pervasive leering, staring, sexual gestures, or displaying pornographic material at work
• Unwanted hugs, groping, unwelcome touches, and cornering
• Spreading sexual rumors about a coworker or other forms of unprofessional behavior, such as rating coworkers on their looks

Compensation and Remedies in a Sexual Harassment Case

An employee who wins a sexual harassment claim may recover more than lost wages. Available remedies under Title VII and the Florida Civil Rights Act may include:

Back pay: The income and benefits you lost, recoverable under both Title VII and the FCRA.

Reinstatement or front pay: A court can return you to your job or award pay in its place when going back isn’t realistic.

Compensatory damages: For the harm the harassment caused, including emotional distress, mental anguish, and loss of dignity.

Punitive damages: Available where the employer acted with malice or reckless indifference to your rights, meant to punish the conduct and discourage it.

Limits on recovery:

Federal caps: Under Title VII, compensatory and punitive damages together are capped by employer size, ranging from $50,000 for the smallest covered employers up to $300,000 for the largest.

Florida cap: The FCRA caps punitive damages at $100,000.

Attorney’s fees: Both laws let a prevailing employee recover them.

Sexual Harassment vs. Sex Discrimination

Sexual harassment and sex discrimination are separate claims that sometimes overlap.

• Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, or based on sex, that affects your job or the environment you work in, from advances and propositions to a pattern of degrading comments.
• Sex discrimination is being treated worse in terms of your employment because of your sex, such as being paid less than a coworker of another sex for the same work, being passed over for a promotion, or being denied a job you were qualified for because of your sex.

The same incident can involve both, but a sex discrimination claim does not require any sexual conduct at all.

Employer Liability for Sexual Harassment

Harassment by a Coworker

When the harasser is a coworker rather than a boss, the employer is generally liable only if it knew or should have known about the harassment and failed to stop it. Once you put the company on notice, through a supervisor, human resources, or a formal complaint, it has a duty to look into the problem and take reasonable steps to end the conduct. An employer that brushes off a complaint or responds in a way that does not stop the harassment can be held responsible for allowing it to continue.

Harassment by a Supervisor

The employer faces a higher bar when the harasser is a supervisor with authority over you. If the harassment leads to a concrete job action, such as being fired, demoted, or reassigned to a worse position, the employer is automatically responsible for what the supervisor did, with no requirement to show the company knew about it.

When a supervisor creates a hostile environment but takes no formal job action, the employer can still be liable, though it may raise a defense: that it had a real process for reporting harassment and acted on complaints, and that you unreasonably failed to use it. That defense is why an employer’s complaint procedure, and whether you used it, often shapes the outcome.

Harassment by Customers, Clients, or Vendors

An employer’s duty does not stop at its own payroll. When a customer, client, or vendor harasses you, the company can be liable if it knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take reasonable steps within its control to stop it. The fact that a regular brings in business, or that a client matters to the company, does not excuse leaving you to handle the harassment alone. If you reported it and were told to put up with it, that response can become part of a claim.

Retaliation for Reporting Sexual Harassment

Punishing an employee for reporting sexual harassment is itself illegal under both Title VII and the Florida Civil Rights Act. The law protects you when you complain to a supervisor or human resources, file a charge, take part in an investigation, or back a coworker who did.

Retaliation stands as its own claim. You can have a valid retaliation case even if the original harassment is never proven, as long as you reported it with a reasonable, good-faith belief that the conduct was unlawful. Retaliation is often what pushes an employee to call a lawyer, since the response to speaking up can do as much damage as the harassment itself.

Steps to Take If You Are Being Sexually Harassed at Work

1. Keep a dated record of what happened, who was involved, where, and who else saw or heard it.
2. Keep copies of any texts, emails, messages, or images, and store them somewhere outside your work accounts and devices, which an employer can shut off.
3. Use your employer’s complaint process or human resources, and put it in writing so there is a record of what you said and when. Reporting also affects whether the company can be held responsible.
4. Note any shift in your hours, assignments, reviews, or treatment that could be evidence of retaliation.
5. There are strict time limits to file a harassment charge, and waiting too long can end a claim before it starts.
6. Before you sign a severance agreement or accept how the company handled things, get advice from an attorney who represents employees.

Filing a Sexual Harassment Claim in Florida

Deadlines to File a Charge

Sexual harassment claims run on strict deadlines, and missing one can bar your case no matter how strong it is. A charge under federal law is filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and in Florida, you generally have 300 days from the harassment to file it.

A charge under state law is filed with the Florida Commission on Human Relations, which allows up to 365 days. Because the clock starts at the time of the conduct and the two deadlines are different, it is worth talking to a lawyer early rather than near the cutoff.

The EEOC and Florida Commission on Human Relations Process

Filing a charge starts an agency process, not a lawsuit. Because the two agencies share charges, filing with one generally preserves your rights under both, so you do not have to file twice. The agency investigates and can try to settle the matter between you and the employer.

On the federal side, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues a right-to-sue notice when it closes its review, and you then have 90 days to file in federal court. On the state side, the Florida Commission on Human Relations investigates and, within 180 days, decides whether there is reasonable cause. Once it finds cause, or if it does not act in time, you can take the case to court, generally within one year of that point.

Contact our Florida Employment Attorneys for a Free Consultation

If you’ve experienced harassment at work, whether it is a supervisor’s demands, a pattern of comments from coworkers, or an employer that ignored you when you reported it, the sooner you get advice, the more options you have.

Benjamin Yormak is board-certified as an expert in employment law cases, a distinction few Florida attorneys hold, and he builds these cases for victims of sexual harassment alone. We can look at what happened, tell you whether the conduct was unlawful and what a claim would involve, and then handle the deadlines and the agency process so a strong case does not slip away. Contact us for a free, confidential consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I be sexually harassed by someone of the same sex?

Yes. Same-sex sexual harassment is treated the same under the law as harassment involving people of the opposite sex. What matters is whether the conduct was unwelcome and based on sex, not the sex of the person responsible.

Do I need a lawyer to bring a sexual harassment claim?

You can file a charge on your own, but the process has strict deadlines and evidence rules that are easy to miss. An experienced sexual harassment attorney can tell you whether you have a claim, handle the filings, and advise whether a sexual harassment lawsuit is the right step.

What counts as sexual harassment at work?

Sexual harassment covers more than one kind of behavior. Unwanted sexual advances, comments about your body, and other sexually harassing behavior may all count when the conduct is unwelcome and tied to your sex. What matters is whether the behavior is considered sexual harassment under the law, not whether the person claims they were only joking.

It only happened once—am I overreacting?

A single serious incident can be enough, depending on what happened, and a pattern of smaller ones can be too. Inappropriate comments, sexual jokes, or ongoing verbal abuse may add up to a hostile work environment even when no one moment seems extreme on its own. If the behavior is affecting how you feel about going to work, it is worth having someone look at the full picture instead of talking yourself out of it.

Does sexual harassment have to be physical?

No. Verbal sexual remarks and verbal sexual advances can be just as unlawful as unwanted physical contact. Harassment that stays entirely verbal still counts when it is unwelcome and severe or frequent enough to affect your working conditions.

What if it’s obscene messages or a coworker who keeps talking about sex?

That can qualify. Obscene or inappropriate invitations, explicit texts, and a coworker frequently discussing graphic details of their sex life may all be part of a harassment claim. You do not have to be propositioned directly for the conduct to cross the line. An environment filled with offensive conduct and sexual talk can be enough on its own.

Is sexual harassment the same as sexual assault?

No. Sexual assault involves unwanted sexual touching or force and is also a crime, while harassment is broader and includes verbal and non-physical behavior. Physical conduct can fall short of assault and still be unlawful. Blocking your path in a way that keeps you somewhere by inhibiting free movement may support a claim even when it is not charged as a crime.

Can a coworker harass me, or does it have to be my boss?

Either one. Harassment in the workplace can come from a supervisor, a co-worker, or even a client or vendor you deal with on the job. Who the harasser is affects how the claim works and how much the employer may be responsible, but workplace harassment by a peer is still something the law addresses.

Can workplace harassment affect more than my job?

It often does. Ongoing harassment can wear on your health, and in serious cases, it has been linked to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. It can also affect your work performance and your ability to do a job you handled well before, which is part of why the law protects your right to a respectful work environment.