Cain's $35k? Sounds Like a Nuisance Suit

About those Herman Cain settlements:

I defended these kinds of suits in the 1990s. Keep in mind that discrimination lawsuits are an exception to the usual American rule that each side pays its own legal fees. If an employer loses a discrimination suit, the employer routinely pays the attorney fees of the Plaintiff. That creates unusual incentives to settle discrimination suits, above and beyond the fact that the average defense cost in 1990 for any claim of employment discrimination was $85,000.

I settled one defense-side suit for about 15K after three years litigation, and then my former client won on the attorneys fees issue when the DC Circuit affirmed the district court's view that the case settlement was not much after all that litigation and less than he could have gotten upon filing the suit.

Its not unreasonable to conclude that the plaintiff who collected $35k from the National Restaurant Association did not have much of a case. If her fellow-plaintiff collected even less--than she was probably deep in nuisance territory.

Lawyers out there can look at Hunter v. Ark Restaraunts Corporation, et. al. 6 Fed. Appx. 6, 2001 WL 418040 (2001). In my view cases like these usually turn on whether the behavior was outrageous, whether it was repeated, and whether when called into question by the employee it ceased. A no on either of the first two and a yes on the third make a weak case.