Sexual Harassment Lawyer for Oakland County
You work at a headquarters in Auburn Hills, a supplier engineering center in Troy, or a hospital in Royal Oak. A director’s messages crossed a line.
You told HR. The investigation came back “unsubstantiated,” and a performance improvement plan or a reorganization notice landed on your desk a few weeks later. Do you have a case? If the conduct fits the legal definition of sexual harassment, or the company punished you for reporting it, and you kept the messages, you very well may. Finding out costs nothing: the case evaluation is a free 15-minute call, and I take termination cases on contingency. The clock to watch is the EEOC’s 300 days for a Title VII charge; Michigan’s ELCRA allows three years, and the right route depends on your employer and your facts. Call (313) 701-2448 before the severance deadline, not after.
How sexual harassment cases look in Oakland County
Oakland County’s workforce is corporate, clinical, and heavily documented. That shapes how harassment happens here and how it gets proved.
Headquarters and engineering centers in Auburn Hills, Troy, and Southfield
Stellantis’s North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Magna and BorgWarner’s supplier operations, Lear in Southfield, and Kelly Services in Troy are organized around programs, travel, and senior leaders with real power over careers. The pattern I see most is the executive who frames attention as mentorship, escalates during a business trip, and turns cold and critical once refused. Within a quarter the “high potential” engineer has a documented performance problem. The evidence: Teams and text messages, the calendar showing the one-on-one dinners, travel records, the review before the refusal and the review after, and the dated HR ticket.
Hospitals in Royal Oak, Troy, Southfield, and West Bloomfield
Corewell Health’s Royal Oak and Troy campuses, Ascension Providence in Southfield and Novi, and Henry Ford West Bloomfield employ thousands of nurses, techs, residents, and support staff. Harassment on a unit often comes from a physician who has privileges but is not on the hospital payroll, and the hospital’s first response is that he is not their employee. That does not end its duty; once it knows, it has to act on what it controls: scheduling, access, privileges. The evidence: the occurrence report, the email chain with your manager, the assignment sheets, and coworkers who watched it happen.
Finance, insurance, and tech offices in Troy and Southfield
Comerica, Flagstar, and the insurance and technology offices along Big Beaver and Northwestern Highway run on sales teams, discretionary bonuses, and after-hours events. Quid pro quo here rarely sounds like a threat. It sounds like a manager who controls account assignments and bonus recommendations, and who makes clear that the good ones go to people who play along. The evidence: compensation letters and account lists before and after, the group chat from the happy hour, and the message where the manager says the quiet part out loud.
Oakland University and county government
Public employers in Rochester and Pontiac have written complaint procedures with civil service or union protections layered on top; a complaint through that procedure is protected activity whatever the internal outcome. The evidence: the complaint, the investigation report, and the transfer that followed.
The law that applies
Michigan and federal law both prohibit sexual harassment, but they diverge on who is covered, who decides, and what you can recover.
Under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, sexual harassment means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other conduct of a sexual nature that is tied to a job decision (quid pro quo) or creates a hostile working environment. ELCRA reaches every Michigan employer with at least one employee, so the three-lawyer firm in Birmingham is covered along with Stellantis. No agency filing is required, the limitations period is three years, and emotional-distress damages are not capped. On liability, Michigan courts ask whether higher management had notice of a hostile environment and failed to take prompt and adequate remedial action; a supervisor’s quid pro quo is charged to the employer directly.
Title VII applies to employers with 15 or more employees, requires an EEOC charge within 300 days, and caps compensatory and punitive damages at $50K–$300K by employer size. Its liability rule is the Faragher/Ellerth defense: when a supervisor harasses you and nothing tangible follows, the employer wins if it had a reasonable anti-harassment procedure and you unreasonably failed to use it. Under a 2013 Supreme Court decision, a “supervisor” for that purpose is someone with power to hire, fire, demote, or reassign you; a senior person without that authority over you is treated like a coworker, and the employer is liable only if it responded negligently.
Retaliation is the third claim and often the cleanest. MCL 37.2701 and Title VII both forbid punishing an employee for opposing or reporting harassment. The complaint has to be in good faith, not proven correct, so the retaliation case does not depend on how the investigation came out.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA hostile environment or quid pro quo | Every Michigan employer, 1+ employees | 3 years, filed directly in circuit court | Lost wages and benefits, emotional distress with no statutory cap, attorney fees |
| ELCRA retaliation for reporting (MCL 37.2701) | Every Michigan employer | 3 years from the discipline or firing | Same as above |
| Title VII harassment | 15+ employees | EEOC charge within 300 days, then suit | Lost wages, compensatory and punitive damages capped at $50K–$300K by employer size, fees |
| Title VII retaliation | 15+ employees | 300 days from the retaliatory act | Same caps |
Which deadline controls depends on which claims you want to keep. The Michigan employment claim deadlines page has every clock in one place.
Where your Oakland County sexual harassment case gets filed
Michigan-law claims from Oakland County are filed in the Oakland County Circuit Court, the 6th Judicial Circuit, at 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac. Federal claims are heard in the Eastern District of Michigan, principally at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, 231 W. Lafayette Boulevard, Detroit.
In a harassment case, the venue decision is mostly a damages decision. An ELCRA-only complaint in Pontiac keeps emotional-distress damages uncapped, avoids the EEOC charge, and generally cannot be removed to federal court. A Title VII count adds capped punitive damages and hands the employer the option to move the case downtown. Oakland County juries come from Troy, Southfield, Farmington Hills, Rochester Hills, and the lakes communities; they work in the same offices and hospitals and read a PIP the way you do. The Oakland County employment lawyer page has more on the jury pool and the 6th Circuit.
The courthouse is the same whether you were harassed at a Troy financial office, a Southfield supplier headquarters, or a Farmington Hills technical center.
The “unsubstantiated” investigation, the reorganization, and the NDA
Oakland County corporate employers follow a script, and it helps to know it in advance.
You report. HR interviews you once, interviews the harasser, and interviews the witnesses he suggests. The finding is “unable to substantiate,” which means nobody else was in the room, not that it did not happen. That finding is not a legal ruling and does not bind a court. It does tell you the employer is now building a record.
Then comes the separation: rarely a firing for cause, usually a reorganization that eliminates your role or a PIP with goals nobody meets, followed by a severance packet with a release, a confidentiality clause, and a non-disparagement clause. Two things to know. The federal Speak Out Act of 2022 makes confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses you signed before the dispute arose unenforceable as to sexual harassment claims, so the NDA in your offer letter does not silence you. A release signed afterward, in exchange for severance, generally does waive the claims, though it cannot stop you from filing an EEOC charge. If you are 40 or older you have at least 21 days to consider it and seven to revoke.
The severance offer is often the employer’s own valuation of the retaliation claim it just created. Read Michigan severance agreements explained before you respond, and do not negotiate it yourself by email.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Export the messages now. Teams chats, texts, calendar invites, and travel confirmations, saved to a personal device with dates visible, before access is shut off.
- Report in writing if you are still employed. Send HR an email that names the person, describes the conduct plainly, and asks for a written response, because that email is what defeats the employer’s “you never told us” defense.
- Take only your own record. Do not copy customer data, source code, or confidential business files; that hands the company a counterclaim and changes the conversation.
- Ask for your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act gives you the right to review it, and it shows whether the “performance concerns” predate your complaint.
- Leave the severance unsigned. The 21-day window exists so you can get advice, and the release covers the harassment and the retaliation both.
- Stay employed if you safely can. Resigning turns a firing case into a constructive-discharge case with a higher bar, so get advice before you give notice.
Oakland County sexual harassment questions
HR at my Troy office investigated and called my complaint “unsubstantiated.” Is my case over?
No. An internal finding is the employer’s opinion, not a court’s, and “unsubstantiated” usually means no third-party witness, not that you were disbelieved. Your harassment claim depends on what happened and what the company knew, and a court weighs the evidence itself. Your retaliation claim does not depend on the finding at all; a good-faith complaint is protected even when HR rejects it. Save the investigation correspondence, because it fixes the date the employer had notice.
My Oakland County employer offered severance with a confidentiality clause. Can it stop me from talking about the harassment?
Partly, and only if you sign. A confidentiality clause you agreed to before the dispute, such as in an offer letter, is unenforceable as to sexual harassment under the federal Speak Out Act. A clause in a severance agreement signed afterward is generally enforceable, but no agreement can bar you from filing an EEOC charge or speaking with a government agency. Have the agreement reviewed before signing; the release is the real price.
The harasser is a senior executive at an Auburn Hills headquarters, not my direct boss. Does that change the claim?
It changes the liability rule, not whether you have one. Under Title VII, the employer is automatically answerable only for a “supervisor” with power to fire, demote, or reassign you; for anyone else, it is liable if it knew or should have known and failed to act. Under Michigan’s ELCRA, a hostile environment is charged to the employer once higher management has notice and fails to respond adequately. Either way, reporting in writing is what triggers the duty.
Does harassment on a business trip or at a company event count if it happened off-site?
Yes. The question is whether the conduct is connected to your employment, not where it occurred. A supplier conference in another state, a customer dinner, a holiday party, or a late-night text from a manager all count when the harasser is a coworker or supervisor and the conduct affects your working conditions. Off-site incidents are often the clearest evidence, because hotel receipts, expense reports, and calendar entries fix the date and the people present.
How long does a sexual harassment case take in Oakland County Circuit Court?
Plan on a year or more. After the complaint is filed, the parties exchange documents and take depositions for several months, then Michigan’s court rules send most cases to case evaluation or mediation, which is where many resolve. Cases that do not settle go to trial, often 12 to 18 months after filing. A pre-suit demand can shorten that when the evidence is strong, but the timeline is driven by the court’s docket and the employer’s willingness to face a jury.
Talk to a sexual harassment lawyer who takes Oakland County cases
If you were harassed at an Oakland County employer and the company answered your complaint with a PIP, a reorganization, or a severance packet, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. Bring the messages and the timeline. I will tell you plainly whether there is a case and what it is worth pursuing.
Warren Astbury, Harvard Law School class of 2009. Fifteen years representing employees only, with more than 50 jury trials to verdict. The fired after an HR complaint post explains how the retaliation timeline is proved.
Cases from the surrounding counties are covered on their own pages: Wayne County, Macomb County, and Washtenaw County.