Employment Litigation: How Much Will You End Up Paying?

So, you’ve been sued.

How much will you have to pay?

We analyzed basically every employment lawsuit in the history of mankind, plus all the latest litigation data, to come up with this handy tool to help guide your litigation and settlement decisions.

If your case has just one plaintiff and no horrible facts (e.g., TMZ-type allegations, exec wrongdoers, etc.), expect to pay between $0 and $50,000. That covers about a third of all cases.

If you have one plaintiff but horrible facts — 28 percent of cases — expect to pay between $50,000 and $100,000.

If you have a multiple-plaintiff case and/or really horrible facts, expect to pay between $100,000 and $1 million. Somewhat surprisingly, that’s more than a third of the cases out there.

And in the unfortunate event that you’re in the 1 percent that have a case with lots and lots of plaintiffs and/or realllllllly horrible facts, expect to pay more than $1 million.

(Sources: EEOC, Jury Verdict Research, Seyfarth Shaw, Fulbright)

This was originally published on Manpower Group’s Employment Blawg.

Mark Toth has served as Manpower Group North America's Chief Legal Officer since 2000. He also serves on the company’s Global Leadership Team, Global Legal Lead Team and North American Lead Team. Mark is recognized as an expert on legal issues affecting the U.S. workplace and is frequently quoted in media from The Wall Street Journal to 60 Minutes. He is also a past Chair of the American Staffing Association and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources. Contact him at mark.toth@manpowergroup.com.