From New York Women’s Equality at: http://nywomensequality.org/10-point-plan/
3. Allowing for Attorney’s Fees in Employment, Credit, and Housing Sex Discrimination Cases (Senate Bill 5874)
• NYS is one of 9 states (in the company of Mississippi and Alabama) that does not already allow successful discrimination defendants to recover attorney’s fees.
• Approximately 77% of employment cases based on sex, and the majority of credit and lending discrimination cases, are filed by women.
• If a victim of discrimination cannot afford to hire an attorney, she cannot seek redress. Those who hire an attorney on a contingency fee arrangement are never “made whole” for their losses because they have to pay an attorney out of their recovery. And, lawyers will not take cases too small or too risky on contingency.
The Women’s Equality Act would:
Allow litigants who win a sex discrimination suit to collect attorney’s fees