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Mitigation of Damages

Are you presently involved in a case where your client is being sued for wrongful discharge, sexual harassment, race, gender or age discrimination? If there is the slightest possibility that you might lose on liability, you have to address the question of damages. Mitigation of damages is your last defense to stop a jury from awarding damages against your client in the six figure range. Don't wait until it is too late to get an expert involved.

A Plaintiff's Duty

Anyone can sue a company for discrimination; however, the law is quite clear:

"A Plaintiff has a duty to try to find or find comparable, alternative employment; in order to mitigate his damages ."

If you prove to a jury that the plaintiff did not conduct a diligent job search following his separation from the company, your client may not pay a nickel in damages even though the company is found guilty on liability.

The Need for an Employability Expert

The issues of employability, due diligence and true value in the job market are not subjective. There are objective criteria which are used to determine a person's value in the marketplace. Criteria which, when presented by an expert, will be accepted by a judge or jury in a court of law.

The Miller Group specializes in evaluating the employability of individuals and their job search efforts with respect to mitigation of damages. Our methodology is sound, effective and reliable. Our research is case-specific and we carefully evaluate each plaintiff's job search efforts to determine whether or not they were diligent. In addition, our experts have hands-on experience placing job applicants in the marketplace and understand the current labor market. We access a variety of job search resources, and research and review those jobs that the plaintiff could have, and should have applied to after his/her termination or separation from the company - up until the present.

Sample Case

We have been retained as Employability Experts by attorneys, companies and plaintiffs throughout the United States. As an example:

We were retained to evaluate the job search efforts of two female officers who voluntarily resigned from their positions at a Sheriff's Department in Florida, and then claimed constructive discharge. One plaintiff accepted part-time employment after her separation at a much lower rate of pay. After reviewing her job search efforts, we concluded that she was not diligent in her job search. Had she conducted a diligent search, she would have found full-time, comparable employment at a comparable rate of pay.

As a result of our report, the case did not go to trial. When the plaintiff's attorney received our report, he recommended to her that she precipitously drop her demands. She subsequently settled for a significantly reduced amount due to her obvious lack of diligence. The attorney who retained us told us that our report "made the difference." The other plaintiff settled after seeing what happened to her friend after our report was produced.

Steve Miller,
Employability Expert

Steve Miller serves as a guest speaker in the area of employability and mitigation of damages for many Fortune 500 companies, law firms and professional associations.

If you would like further information about our services or if you would like to discuss a particular case, please contact our office.

Areas of Expertise: