By John J. Megjugorac, Esq.

On April 17, 2014, Marilyn Velez’s life changed forever. After 16 days of trial, an Essex County, NJ jury returned a verdict in her favor in the amount of $525,000.00.

Ms. Velez was represented at trial by partner Adam J. Kleinfeldt, Esq. and associate Rebecca Nathanson, Esq. of the Ginarte Law Firm. The case arose after Ms. Velez was subjected to sexual harassment in her workplace At RockTenn Company.

Ms. Velez claimed that her manager at RockTenn Company made inappropriate sexual remarks.  The evidence showed that Ms. Velez complained to her human resources department on ten separate occasions about the harassment. However, RockTenn terminated Ms. Velez instead of dealing with the situation.

The company stated that Ms. Velez’s termination was due to a downturn in business. At trial, Mr. Kleinfeldt and Ms. Nathanson were able to demonstrate that RockTenn’s proffered reason for Ms. Velez’s termination was pretextual. The evidence showed that RockTenn had actually posted job openings at the same time of Ms. Velez’s termination.

The Essex County jury deliberated for five hours before rendering its verdict. The jury awarded $75,000.00 for Ms. Velez’s hostile work environment claim, $200,000.00 for her retaliation claim, and $250,000.00 on a retaliation claim against the individual defendant.