Juries are More Likely to Find Retaliation than Discrimination

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On October 25, 2022, a federal jury in Houston awarded a woman $365,000,000 in punitive damages and over $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, after finding that her employer had terminated her in retaliation for complaining about race discrimination. While this amount may not stand after appeal, the case and the sums at issue are notable. I mention this case not because of the eye-popping damages award, but because it demonstrates yet again that juries are often more sympathetic to retaliation claims than they are to discrimination claims. Here, after she had been counseled by her supervisor for poor performance, and subsequently placed on a performance improvement plan, the plaintiff complained that that her supervisor was discriminating against her because of…