Q: Accused of harassment, investigating in-house, no legal action yet. Next steps?
I have been accused of harassment, with claims that I said something inappropriate to the accuser. However, I did not say what they claim, and I do not know who the accuser is. The matter is currently being investigated in-house, with no legal proceedings in place yet. What should I do now?
A:
Do not agree to be interrogated without representation.
If you have been accused of saying something and you know that you did not say it, then you know exactly what you are accused of saying. Usually, there are a limited number of people to whom the comment could have been addressed. This may turn out to be nothing in which case it should serve as a lesson to be more careful. Nobody wants to be a victim. Nobody is going to allege you made a comment that constituted sexual harassment unless that is how they understood it or misunderstood it. There is nothing in it for them. All of this is to say that you must take the process seriously. All
If you do need to engage counsel, Tell the attorney anything that you said or may have said that could have been misheard or misinterpreted to be the phrase that you are alleged to have said. Remember that you can never guarantee an outcome but lying to your attorney or withholding anything from your attorney is the closest you can get to guaranteeing a bad outcome. Good luck
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