The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that workplace bullying can be intentional infliction of emotional distress. While a state supreme court ruling is binding precedent only on that state’s courts, other states often use such decisions to inform their own legal thinking. For a complete overview of this case’s history, see http://bullyinginstitute.org/education/indianacase.html.
To read the entire decision: http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/04080801bd.pdf.
The verdict has, of course, received media attention. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/BUSINESS/804090417.
The comment section is quite revealing. There are the healthy workplace advocates and bullied people who have spoken up, but there are also the comments that call targets whiners, wimps, etc., as if being yelled at and having fists put in one’s face were “normal” workplace behavior. We all know it should not be, and in some ways, this is a cry for civilization to win out over barbarism.
For some people, anyone who sues is a crybaby; any jury is a pathetic bunch of morons; any appellate court or group of lawyers are out to get doctors. But the truth is so clear. Targets of bullying experience the health-harming effects of abuse; juries are people like us who know a bully when they see one and are tired of this behavior; lawyers and jurists are people who can choose to do the right thing and invoke the law to do what it is supposed to do: right wrongs!
