Sexual Harassment Lawyer for Washtenaw County
Most of the harassment calls I get from Washtenaw County start with a hierarchy. A principal investigator and a postdoc.
An attending and a resident. A founder and the second engineer hired. Someone with power over your funding, your appointment, your recommendation letter, or your visa made your job conditional on tolerating him, and when you went to the department or the university’s civil-rights office, the appointment was not renewed. That is a sexual harassment case if the conduct meets the legal definition or if the non-renewal was retaliation for the report, and if you have the emails, the Slack history, and the witnesses. The case evaluation is a free 15-minute call, and termination cases are handled on contingency. The federal clock is 300 days to file an EEOC charge; Michigan’s ELCRA allows three years, and which one you need depends on your employer. Call (313) 701-2448.
How sexual harassment cases look in Washtenaw County
One employer dominates this county, and the rest of the workforce is educated, salaried, and used to writing things down. Both facts shape these cases.
University labs, clinics, and departments
The University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine employ more than 37,000 people across a structure built on dependence: graduate student instructors on advisors, postdocs on principal investigators, residents on attendings, lecturers and research scientists on renewable appointments. Harassment here rarely looks like a threat. It looks like a mentor whose attention becomes personal, then physical, and whose support evaporates when refused. The retaliation is a non-renewal, a lost authorship, a withdrawn letter, or a “restructured” lab. The evidence: emails and Slack messages, the dated report to the university’s Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office, the appointment letters and funding notices, and the colleagues who noticed the change.
Trinity Health, IHA, and the VA
Trinity Health Ann Arbor, Chelsea Hospital, the IHA physician group, and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System together employ around ten thousand clinical and support workers. The hospital pattern is a physician or a patient, and a manager who treats it as part of the work. Once the hospital knows, it must act on what it controls: assignments, access, privileges. VA employees are federal workers with a separate process, described below. The evidence: the occurrence report, the email to your manager, and the assignment sheets.
Toyota R&D, Forvia, Domino’s, and downtown tech
Toyota Motor North America R&D in York Township, Forvia in Saline, Domino’s headquarters in Ann Arbor Township, and the software companies downtown, including Duo Security and Google’s Ann Arbor office, run on hybrid schedules and Slack. Harassment follows the tools: direct messages after hours, comments in private channels, a team offsite that goes wrong. Corporate HR finds “no policy violation,” and the next performance cycle is your last. The evidence: screenshots of the direct messages before your account is deactivated, the dated HR ticket, the review before and the review after, and the calendar showing the one-on-ones.
EMU, restaurants, and small employers in Ypsilanti and downtown Ann Arbor
Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti has its own complaint procedure and a public-employer overlay. Downtown Ann Arbor’s restaurants, bars, and shops are the county’s other harassment pipeline: tipped workers, owner-managers, and no HR department. Many have fewer than 15 employees, which puts them outside Title VII and squarely inside Michigan’s ELCRA. The evidence: the manager’s texts, the schedule showing your shifts cut after you refused, and the coworker behind the bar that night.
The law that applies
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL 37.2101) and Title VII both prohibit quid pro quo and hostile-environment sexual harassment, and both prohibit retaliation for reporting it (ELCRA’s retaliation section is MCL 37.2701). The differences matter here because the county’s largest employer is an arm of the state.
ELCRA covers every Michigan employer with one or more employees, including the University of Michigan, EMU, Washtenaw County, and the City of Ann Arbor. It requires no agency filing, gives you three years, and places no cap on emotional-distress damages. An employer is liable for a hostile environment when higher management had notice and failed to take prompt, adequate remedial action; a supervisor’s quid pro quo is charged to the employer directly. The catch for university employees: an ELCRA claim against the state must be brought in state court, because the Eleventh Amendment bars a federal court from hearing a state-law damages claim against the university.
Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, requires an EEOC charge within 300 days of the last act, and limits compensatory and punitive damages to $50K–$300K depending on the employer’s size. Unlike the ADA and the FMLA’s self-care provision, Title VII does reach state universities for money damages, because Congress validly overrode state immunity when it extended Title VII to public employers. So a U-M employee can bring Title VII in federal court and ELCRA in the Washtenaw County Trial Court, but not both in one federal case. Title VII’s Faragher/Ellerth defense, which excuses an employer for a supervisor’s harassment when no tangible action followed and the employee skipped the complaint procedure, is why a written report matters.
Retaliation is often the sturdier claim. A good-faith report to a chair, HR, or the university’s civil-rights office is protected; a non-renewal that follows is a case even if the harassment itself is contested.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA harassment and retaliation, private employer | Every Michigan employer with 1+ employees | 3 years, direct to circuit court | Lost pay, uncapped emotional distress, attorney fees; harasser can be named individually |
| ELCRA against U-M, EMU, or another public body | State and municipal employees | 3 years, but must be filed in state court | Same remedies against the public employer |
| Title VII harassment and retaliation | 15+ employees, including state universities | EEOC charge within 300 days | Lost pay, compensatory and punitive damages capped at $50K–$300K, fees |
| Federal-sector EEO (VA Ann Arbor) | Federal civilian employees | Contact an agency EEO counselor within 45 days | Title VII remedies, capped, no punitive damages |
The Michigan employment claim deadlines page puts these clocks next to every other Michigan employment deadline.
Where your Washtenaw County sexual harassment case gets filed
State claims are filed in the Washtenaw County Trial Court, the 22nd Judicial Circuit, at 101 E. Huron Street in downtown Ann Arbor. Federal claims go to the Eastern District of Michigan, whose main courthouse is the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in Detroit; the court also sits in Ann Arbor, though case assignment does not follow county lines.
For a Washtenaw County harassment case, the state courthouse is usually the stronger choice. An ELCRA-only complaint keeps emotional-distress damages uncapped, avoids the EEOC charge, allows the harasser to be named as a defendant, and keeps the case in front of a Washtenaw jury, which is among the most educated in Michigan and reads exhibits closely. For university employees, state court is also the only place the ELCRA claim can be heard. The Washtenaw County employment lawyer page has more on the 22nd Circuit and its jury pool, and the Ann Arbor employment lawyer page covers the city’s employers.
Reporting inside the University of Michigan: what counts and what it does not do
University employees ask two questions. Does reporting to the Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office count? And does the university’s process protect my legal claim?
Yes, it counts. A report to that office, to a department chair, to a dean, or to Michigan Medicine HR is opposition to unlawful conduct under ELCRA and Title VII. It puts the university on notice, and it makes whatever happens to you afterward a potential retaliation claim. If you are both a student and an employee, reporting through either the Title IX channel or the employment channel is protected under both.
No, the process does not protect the claim. The university’s investigation can take many months, decides only whether a university policy was violated, and does not stop the EEOC’s 300 days or ELCRA’s three years. Report internally and calendar the statutory deadlines separately.
Two more points. A non-renewal of a term appointment is treated as a termination for retaliation purposes when the reason was your complaint, whatever the appointment letter says. And postdocs, graduate student employees, lecturers, and Michigan Medicine nurses are unionized, so a grievance runs alongside the statutory claims without replacing or pausing them. For VA Ann Arbor employees, none of this applies; the 45-day federal EEO process is yours.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Preserve the messages before your account is deactivated. Forward emails and screenshot Slack and text threads, with timestamps, to a personal address, and leave research data, patient records, and proprietary code where they are.
- Report in writing to someone with authority. An email to the department chair, HR, or the civil-rights office that names the person and describes the conduct plainly fixes the date the employer knew.
- Write the chronology now. Each incident, each report, each change in funding, authorship, schedule, or evaluation afterward, with dates.
- Request your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act applies to public and private employers alike, and the file shows whether the concerns about your work appeared before or after your complaint.
- Do not sign a separation agreement or accept a “voluntary” non-renewal in writing. Either can waive the claim, and both deadlines allow time for review.
- Do not resign before getting advice. A resignation converts a straightforward retaliation case into a constructive-discharge case with a heavier burden.
Washtenaw County sexual harassment questions
Can I sue the University of Michigan for sexual harassment, or does sovereign immunity block it?
You can. Title VII applies to state universities, and Congress validly removed state immunity for Title VII claims, so a federal harassment or retaliation suit for money damages against U-M is available after an EEOC charge. Michigan’s ELCRA also covers the university, but that claim must be filed in the Washtenaw County Trial Court, because a federal court cannot hear a state-law damages claim against the state. The immunity problem that blocks ADA and FMLA self-care damages does not apply here.
I’m a postdoc or graduate student employee at U-M. Am I covered by employment law or only by Title IX?
Both. If the university pays you for work, as a graduate student instructor, research assistant, or postdoctoral fellow, you are an employee under ELCRA and Title VII, and harassment by an advisor or principal investigator is workplace harassment. As a student you also have Title IX protections. The two run in parallel, and a report through the Title IX office is protected activity for your employment claims as well.
Does reporting through the university’s Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office protect my legal claim?
It protects your retaliation claim by documenting the date you complained, and it puts the university on notice. It does not preserve your deadlines. The internal investigation can take a year, and the EEOC’s 300-day clock and ELCRA’s three-year clock keep running while it does. Make the report, keep a copy, and treat the statutory deadlines as separate obligations the university’s process does nothing to extend.
The harassment happened over Slack while I worked remotely for an Ann Arbor tech company. Does that count?
Yes. Harassment through direct messages, private channels, video calls, or texts is workplace harassment when it comes from a coworker or manager and affects your working conditions, wherever you were sitting. Remote harassment is often easier to prove, because it is written down. Screenshot the messages with timestamps before your account is deactivated, note who else was in the channel, and report in writing so the company is on notice.
My research appointment was not renewed after I reported my PI. Is a non-renewal retaliation?
It can be. A non-renewal is an adverse employment action when the reason was your complaint, and the appointment letter’s term-limit language does not change that. The proof is the timing, the renewal history of comparable appointments in the lab, the funding in place, and any change in how your work was described after the report. These cases turn on documents, so preserve the emails about funding and renewal expectations now.
Talk to a sexual harassment lawyer who takes Washtenaw County cases
If you were harassed at the university, a hospital, a research campus, or a small business anywhere in Washtenaw County, and the report cost you your appointment, your hours, or your job, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. You will get a plain answer about which statute covers you and how much time you have.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, 2009. Fifteen years representing employees, never employers, with more than 50 cases tried to verdict. For the retaliation timeline, read fired after an HR complaint.
The same practice covers the counties to the east: Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County.