Zaytoun Law Firm was recently featured in North Carolina Lawyers Weekly and in the Triangle Business Journal for a substantial verdict won by the firm in an employment discrimination case. In Eric Rappaport, MD v. Raleigh OB/GYN Centre, PA, 14 CVS 1438, Wake County Superior Court, Zaytoun Law Firm’s client won a verdict of $871,603.00 in compensatory and punitive damages, and a judgment for over $1,000,000.00 with the addition of costs and pre-judgment interest.
The North Carolina wrongful discharge and discrimination attorneys at Zaytoun Law Firm represented a wonderful client, Dr. Eric Rappaport, who was forced out and wrongfully terminated from his employment as an office-based gynecologist because he had a disability. The Wake County jury found that Dr. Rappaport’s employer, Raleigh OB/GYN Centre, PA, discriminated against him because of his Parkinson’s disease when it decided to fire him after decades of service to the practice and its patients. The jury further found that Raleigh OB/GYN retaliated against Dr. Rappaport for filing a discrimination complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
After the trial, the Court also sanctioned Raleigh OB/GYN, forcing it to pay Dr. Rappaport’s attorneys’ fees and costs for evidence discovery efforts by his legal team and forensic computer experts. The Court’s sanctions were based on Raleigh OB/GYN’s owner giving deceptive testimony about an office “memo” that allegedly documented a key secret meeting of partners and certain staffers of the practice just before Dr. Rappaport was fired.
The Raleigh employment attorneys at Zaytoun Law Firm are pleased that this jury verdict has generated attention from business and legal media because this result is important to all of the “differently able” people in the community who have the right to work without being subjected to discrimination.
Click here for the complete Lawyers Weekly article about the case and here for the Triangle Business Journal article. The public court judgment can be seen here.
