Balancing Client Expectations in Settlement

Clients who have been subjected to discrimination in the workplace often have two goals:  to receive financial compensation for their loss of employment, reputation, and emotional distress, and to seek retribution from the employer who caused their losses.  Balancing these two needs in an effort to reach a settlement and assist a client with moving forward with their life is often a precarious process. The client’s emotional need to see the business “punished” can often outweigh their desire to receive financial compensation.  While the client may legitimately be willing to forego the money, the business may not be so willing to agree to terms that make the client feel vindicated.As an attorney, we have two roles.  Being an aggressive advocate is a primary role.  However, being an effective counselor is equally important.  Oftentimes, a client simply needs to hear that they were wronged, that they are heard and that, as an attorney, our advocacy includes an understanding of the unfairness they experienced.  The conundrum arises when that feeling of unfairness carries more weight with the client than their desire for a resolution. This can be a difficult quandary when it overshadows the client’s ability to understand the value of their case and the options available to them for damages.As companies are loath to admit they were wrong, any settlement agreement exemplifies this truth, attorneys must get creative to satisfy the client’s emotional need.  Mediation is an excellent opportunity for this as a skilled mediator may be able to convey a message of apology from the opposing parties without reducing an apology to writing which defendants are loath to do.  If mediation does not occur, it is left upon the attorney to convey this message. This may take the form of a conversation with opposing counsel that includes recognition of the client’s emotional needs. Perhaps reducing the apology to a dollar figure that stands in for the written or verbal acknowledgment that the client desires.  While emotional damages as a whole are meant to cover all aspects of emotional damages, at times, the client needs to hear that there is a dollar figure assigned with particularity to the unfairness component aside from the general damage figure in order to quiet that need for retribution.