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2009 Court Ruling on Prego Comments Paves Way For Client's Pregnancy Harassment Case

United States District Court, Northern Division of Illinois, Eastern District  January  2009

The Honorable Judge issued an opinion in a pregnancy discrimination case brought by one of our clients in federal court. In that case, our client claimed to have been subjected to a barrage of harassing comments from coworkers while she was pregnant, including that "pregos are sexy" and such. In the lawsuit, we claimed pregnancy harassment which we believed should be recognized just like sexual and racial harassment cases. Defendent attorneys resisted this somewhat novel claim and asked the court to dismiss our client’s case on several grounds, including jurisdiction. The Court refused to dismiss the case. Instead, it sustained our client’s case and her entire complaint.

In handing this motion to dismiss victory to our client, the Honorable Judge  rejected Defendent attorneys’ arguments. In doing so, the court stated that since Plaintiff claims that she was subjected to offensive comments due to her pregnancy such as "sexy prego" and "pregos are sexy", she may proceed with her sexual and pregnancy harassment case in federal court under Title VII. With this motion denied, the court paved the way for the case to progress to discovery and depositions.

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