By Dustin Luca
\nEagle Tribune
\nANDOVER \u2014 An Andover-based debt-collection law firm has been ordered by a jury to pay $1 million after losing a federal civil rights case brought by a former employee in its Kentucky call center.<\/p>\n
The verdict against Zwicker and Associates, handed down Friday by a 12-person jury in U.S. District Court in Convington, Ky., awards $1 million in damages to Clinton Burton, 42, a former employee in the firm\u2019s Hebron, Ky., debt-collections center.<\/p>\n
The company intends to appeal the judgment, according to Robert Thuotte, executive vice president and corporate counsel for Zwicker and Associates in Andover.<\/p>\n
The jury determined that Burton, an African-American, was wrongfully fired from his management job at the Hebron office in 2010, according to a press release announcing the verdict.<\/p>\n
About 300 of Zwicker\u2019s nearly 1,000 employees nationwide are based out of the Hebron office. Zwicker\u2019s Andover facility, located on Minuteman Road, houses its corporate offices.<\/p>\n
Barbara Bonar, a member of Burton\u2019s legal counsel, said the Hebron office was \u201cfilled with racist comments and racist behaviors that outraged the jury. The jury responded to that, and most of their verdict was based on the lack of credibility with Zwicker and Associates witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s defense attorneys argued that Burton was fired for mocking a fellow co-worker, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Thuotte said the company is \u201cboth shocked and saddened by the recent jury verdict in favor of this former employee at their Kentucky facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company \u201cfinds the jury verdict contrary to their commitment to equality, dignity and respect in the workplace,\u201d Thuotte said. \u201cHad management at Zwicker been aware of the alleged remarks or behavior in the workplace, they would have taken immediate steps to rectify the situation and hold those responsible accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hebron office, in northern Kentucky, is located \u201ctruly where the North meets the South,\u201d Bonar said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of thinking in the North that racism still doesn\u2019t exist, but in the South, it does.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Bonar, Burton\u2019s lawsuit, initiated three years ago, is one of several involving Zwicker\u2019s Kentucky office. Prior to Burton\u2019s case going to trial, five other cases were in motion and more are expected following the jury decision, she said.<\/p>\n
The $1 million decision includes $300,000 to cover Burton\u2019s lost wages, $100,000 for emotional distress and another $600,000 for punitive damages, according to the release.<\/p>\n
The punitive damages stem from the company\u2019s actions during the lawsuit, when Burton was \u201casked to support the company and was pulled into meeting after meeting with attorneys suggesting \u2014 basically demanding \u2014 that he change his story to support the company\u201d in its other cases, Bonar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe refused to do so,\u201d she said. \u201cThat verdict was based on the jury\u2019s response to this company pulling the plaintiff into meetings and demanding that he testify, basically, to commit perjury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thuotte said the firm denies that allegation, and in saying that the majority of the damages \u201care related to a claim for a public policy tort,\u201d the company \u201cdenied that the alleged conduct ever occurred, and the verdict on that claim is being appealed, as is the verdict on the other claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe firm denies all of the claims,\u201d Thuotte said, \u201cas we testified to at the trial.\u201d<\/p>\n