This arti­cle is the first of 3 parts to cov­er 3 Acts of Con­gress direct­ed at expand­ing the rights of sex­u­al harass­ment and abuse victims. 

The series of 3 federal laws on sexual harassment claims

• Con­gress first in 2017, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), lim­it­ed employ­er tax deduc­tions for set­tle­ments of sex­u­al harass­ment and abuse cas­es where the set­tle­ment agree­ment includ­ed a nondis­clo­sure agree­ment. That’s what this arti­cle is about.
• Con­gress next in March 2022 passed the  End­ing Forced Arbi­tra­tion of Sex­u­al Assault and Harass­ment Act of 2021 which inval­i­dates arbi­tra­tion agree­ments over sex­u­al harass­ment and abuse claims, where the agree­ment is signed before a dis­pute arose. That’s my sec­ond arti­cle in this series.
• Con­gress then in Decem­ber 2022 passed the Speak Out Act which inval­i­dat­ed nondis­clo­sure and non-dis­par­age­ment agree­ments in sex­u­al harass­ment and abuse claims where the agree­ments were pro­cured before a dis­pute arose. That’s my third arti­cle in this series.