Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing and development.

Still, we, here at Miletti Law®, feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As the authoritative force in Employment Law, we are thrilled to continue creating content-filled videos that cover diverse areas of Labor Law to educate and deliver in a sense that only Miletti Law® can. In this regard, this blog introduces you to our video titled “Compensatory Damages 101, Your Guide To Emotional Distress.” Just the other day, we concluded one of our longest and interesting series on federal laws applicable to workplace harassment, discrimination, & retaliation in New York. In Parts A & B of the last blog in this series, we dwelt much on the “recovery of damages & penalties” under several federal laws. Among other damages, “compensatory damages” are usually awarded due to emotional distress and suffering, and pain such an individual may have gone through. We also mentioned that while they are usually capped, compensatory damages may include both front pay and back pay under certain federal laws such as Section 1981. Others, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), are very comprehensive and elaborate on recoverable damages and penalties. Feel free to read more in our blogs accessible through https://milettilaw.com/blog/f/recovery-of-damages-penalties-under-applicable-federal-laws-a and https://milettilaw.com/blog/f/recovery-of-damages-penalties-under-applicable-federal-laws-b.

Accordingly, there has never been a better time to emphasize more on compensatory damages through a video and directly from the firm’s own #LegalMuscle. This is also particularly important since most people have been emotionally distressed after months and months of muddling in the muck of a flurry of curfews, mandatory vaccinations, and the malicious denials of religious and medical exemptions following the scamndemic. All this has happened despite Americans being entitled to a number of absolute rights under Title VII. In light of the provisions of this federal law, we have attempted to disentangle the issue of compensatory damages, when they are awarded and when they are not, and the circumstances under which they are recoverable.

That being said, let us get down to it.

Generally speaking, recoverable damages in Title VII cases fall under three broad categories, including (1) economic damages (front pay, back pay, prejudgment interest), (2) compensatory (non-economic) damages, and (3) punitive damages (based on courts’ moral judgment as to whether the defendant engaged in the unlawful misconduct willfully or with bad faith). Nonetheless, irrespective of any other damages awarded, the cap for Title VII is $300,000. However, as mentioned in Part A of Part XXIII of the previous series, this cap is for employers with 501 or more employees, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3) of Title VII.

Compensatory Damages in Title VII Cases

Compensatory damages, also called non-economic damages, entail those damages awarded to a prevailing party as compensation for the emotional distress, suffering, and pain they have undergone because of the unlawful conduct (such as discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation) of a defendant. Technically speaking, assuming that a plaintiff prevails in a Title VII trial, there are three levels of compensatory damages.

  1. Level I (Garden Variety) – this level is considered when the evidence presented at a trial is limited to the testimony of the plaintiff. For instance, a plaintiff can claim that they spent sleepless nights, lost appetite, and were unable to concentrate in their regular routine in the course of the trial because they were emotionally distressed but have nothing to corroborate these claims. The general standard for a Garden Variety emotional distress claim is between $30,000 and $125,000.
  2. Level II (Significant Emotional Distress) – this level is considered in cases where a court finds that a plaintiff suffered significant emotional distress. In this case, a plaintiff could provide some documentary evidence to support claims that they were emotionally distressed. For instance, an individual could produce a note in which a psychologist confirms that this person has been suffering from emotional distress or related issues following a psychological evaluation. The general standard for this level of emotional distress claim is between $50,000 and $200,000. Most trials of this nature are likely to fall in this level due to the substantial overlap and significant flexibility.
  3. Level III (Egregious Emotional Distress) – in this case, a court may find sufficient evidence that the defendant engaged in outrageous and despicable behavior or conduct, which substantially impacted the plaintiff. In a legal context, such conduct could be described as behavior that “shocks-the-conscience.” Usually, the plaintiff would provide sufficient and medically supported evidence that they have a legitimate medical problem resulting from the emotional distress and torture they suffered due to the defendant’s unlawful conduct. As the highest level, the general standard for this level of emotional distress claim is between $200,000 and $1,000,000. We have dealt with a case where a plaintiff was awarded &1.32 million after being molested on different occasions by her employer. However, this means that the trial was not limited to Title VII because the cap was higher than $300,000.

NOTE: As an issue of great importance, it is critical to set the record straight and say that vaccine litigation, particularly for those complaining about the same, is not “shocking-to-the-conscience.” From the #LegalMuscle himself, you should not proceed to court or waste your time and resources because there is no way you can win in vaccine litigation based on such an argument. Well, why it has been generally flexible with COVID-19, New York City has held, on numerous occasions, that it has the legal mandate to require mandatory vaccinations when necessary.

Please, feel free to view our video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoCRcFuEB_Y.

As we continue hammering on new stuff every day, stay tuned for more educative videos, inspiring training, & legal advice. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.