Michigan Workplace Sexual Assault Lawyer

An assault at work puts a survivor in a position where they have to navigate: the place where it happened is also the place the paycheck comes from. People spend weeks calculating instead of healing whether reporting will cost them their job. Whether HR works for them or for the company. Whether they can sue at all, because someone said workplace injuries only go through workers’ comp.

That last belief stops too many people from making one phone call, so it deserves the first answer: workers’ compensation does not end a sexual assault case. The assailant can be sued personally. Michigan’s civil rights law creates claims against employers that comp does not cover. And the fear about your job is itself addressed by law, because retaliation for reporting is separately illegal. Vahdat Weisman Law sexual assault attorneys represent workers who were sexually assaulted or harassed on the job across Michigan. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free, confidential consultation. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation.

Comp, and What Comp Never Was

Michigan’s workers’ compensation law makes comp the exclusive remedy against your employer for workplace injuries under MCL 418.131. For some survivors, comp is genuinely useful: it can pay for medical and psychological treatment and wage loss from a work-related injury regardless of fault, and it should not be waived away. What comp never was is the whole story.

Michigan courts have long held that the comp system does not bar civil rights claims under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act; they are a separate statutory track against the employer. The person who attacked you is a separate matter entirely; comp exclusivity protects the employer, and claims against the individual assailant, particularly a customer, vendor, or other outsider, proceed as ordinary intentional tort claims, with coworker situations requiring their own analysis under the statute. So the practical picture for most survivors is comp benefits where they apply, plus civil claims comp cannot reach. Sorting which claims exist on your facts is exactly what a consultation is for.

Your Strongest Tool: Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act

The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act prohibits sex discrimination in employment, and Michigan treats sexual harassment as sex discrimination. ELCRA is often stronger for survivors than federal law: it has no damage caps, no requirement to file with an agency first, it applies to small employers that federal law misses, and it carries a three-year deadline, whereas federal law gives 300 days to file an EEOC charge. The Michigan Supreme Court also held decades ago, in a case involving a workplace rape, that a single incident, if sufficiently severe, can itself create a hostile work environment. An assault is that incident.

Employer responsibility follows rules the Michigan Supreme Court set out in Chambers v Trettco, and they reward documentation. When a supervisor ties job consequences to sexual submission, quid pro quo harassment, the employer answers for it. For a hostile environment, the employer is liable when it knew or should have known and failed to take prompt, adequate corrective action. That is why reports matter so much: complaints to HR, texts to a manager, coworkers who witnessed earlier behavior all establish what the company knew and when. One more Michigan wrinkle worth knowing early: some employers put shortened deadlines for lawsuits into job applications and handbooks, and the Michigan Supreme Court addressed those clauses as recently as 2025. Save every employment document you signed and let a lawyer read it before assuming you have three years.

If the Assault Just Happened

Your health and your evidence both have deadlines. Consider a hospital visit and a sexual assault forensic exam, which Michigan hospitals must offer within 120 hours of an assault; its direct costs are not billed to you, and no police report is required to receive it. Report to police if and when you are able; a criminal case does not prevent a civil one.

Reporting inside the company deserves one honest caution alongside the encouragement. A written report, even a brief email, establishes what the company knew and triggers its duty to act, and it usually strengthens the civil case. At the same time, HR works for the employer, and what you write and say in its process becomes part of the record. If you are afraid or unsure, get advice first and report with help; that can be a same-day step, not a delay. And do not resign, sign a severance, or sign anything in an investigation without having it reviewed, because those documents can change your rights.

Save everything: messages, schedules showing who was working, names of witnesses, the handbook, your own timeline. Security video is typically overwritten in days or weeks, so a preservation demand needs to go out fast, and sending one is among the first things we do.

Retaliation Is Separately Illegal

ELCRA and federal law both prohibit punishing a worker for reporting harassment or assault, participating in an investigation, or filing a charge. Retaliation is not always a firing: cut hours, a sudden transfer to worse shifts, exclusion, write-ups that never happened before. If any of that follows your report, document the timeline, because before-and-after comparisons of schedules, reviews, and discipline are how retaliation is proved, and retaliation often becomes a strong claim in its own right. If the environment becomes intolerable and you are forced out, the law recognizes constructive discharge, so leaving under pressure does not necessarily forfeit your wage claims, though it is a decision to make with advice where circumstances allow.

What Your Claim May Be Worth

Compensation covers therapy and medical care, lost wages if you were pushed out or could not stay, lost future earnings where a career was derailed, and the emotional harm of the assault itself, which ELCRA compensates without statutory caps; ELCRA also allows recovery of attorney fees. Federal claims, where they apply, carry caps but can include punitive damages against private employers, which Michigan’s own law does not provide, so the choice of claims is part of the value analysis. We are candid about limits too: cases without any report, witnesses, or records are harder, and we will tell you where your facts fall, for free, in confidence.

Deadlines That Do Not Wait

Three years under ELCRA, unless a signed document purports to shorten it. Three hundred days for an EEOC charge if federal claims are worth preserving, and only 45 days for federal employees to start the EEO process. Ten years for civil claims based on the criminal sexual conduct itself. Different defendants carry different clocks, and if the assault involved a staffing agency placement, work travel, a hotel, or a company event venue, additional defendants and deadlines enter the picture. Since 2022, federal law also lets survivors invalidate pre-dispute arbitration clauses for sexual assault and harassment claims arising after March 3, 2022, and the federal Speak Out Act makes pre-dispute NDAs unenforceable for these claims, so paperwork that looks like a barrier often is not. One consultation sorts your actual dates and documents.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

Because these cases are legal claims and workplace survival problems at the same time, and both deserve attention. We move quickly on evidence, we deal with the employer and its counsel so you do not have to, and we structure every step around your safety and income, not just the lawsuit. If the facts also support claims against a third party, a property owner, a security contractor, or an event venue, we pursue those too.

Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, our phones are answered 24/7, and we serve clients in English and Spanish from our Livonia office. Related pages: hotel sexual assault, and Uber & Lyft sexual assault.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do I have to report to HR before I can sue? No. ELCRA does not require an internal report before filing. But what the employer knew, and when, shapes its liability for hostile environment claims, so reporting usually strengthens the case. If you are afraid to report, tell us why, and we can help you do it safely and in writing.
• The person who assaulted me was my boss. Does that help or hurt my case? A supervisor’s involvement usually matters legally, though the analysis is specific: quid pro quo liability attaches when job consequences were tied to submission, and a supervisor’s assault can also anchor a severe hostile environment claim. Practically, supervisor cases raise retaliation risk, which the law separately addresses. Both are reasons to have counsel before the company shapes the record.
• It happened at a work party, a conference, an off-site. Does that count? Often yes. Work-sponsored events, travel, and settings the employer organized can support employer liability, and the venue or hotel may carry its own responsibility on its own deadlines. Location complicates these cases more than it ends them.
• I did not go to the police. Can I still bring a civil claim? Yes. Civil claims do not require charges or a conviction, and many workplace cases are proven through company records, witnesses, and patterns rather than a criminal file. A police report can still be made now, and it often helps.
• What if I signed an arbitration agreement or an NDA? Federal law now lets survivors invalidate pre-dispute arbitration clauses for sexual assault and harassment claims that arose after March 3, 2022, and the Speak Out Act makes pre-dispute NDAs unenforceable for these disputes. Bring us whatever you signed; the answer is frequently better than employees expect.

Talk to a Michigan Workplace Sexual Assault Lawyer Today

You do not have to choose between your paycheck and your dignity, and you do not have to figure out the order of steps alone. Call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.