Anthony Bond
Daily Mail
May 8, 2013
A female lawyer who blurted out: ‘I cannot stand Jewish people’ during an office rant has been left with a huge legal bill after a discrimination case was brought against her by a former colleague.
Danielle Morris, 34, was subject of a three-and-a-half year investigation in front of two legal tribunals and almost lost her career after she made the remark during an office conversation.
The mother-of-two complained a Jewish man had jumped the queue at a medical centre while she was waiting to take one of her children to see a doctor.
Later she relayed the incident in the presence of a Jewish cashier at her law practice in Rossendale, Lancashire.
After making her comment, the unnamed cashier said: ‘Please do not say that’ but Mrs Morris added: ‘I don’t care, I cannot stand them.’
Three months after the incident in December 2009, the cashier left the law firm – then brought a racial and religious claim against Mrs Morris and the practice and won an undisclosed sum in damages.
Mrs Morris herself was then hauled before the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority after a further complaint of discrimination by the cashier.
It emerged the matter ‘snowballed’ despite the lawyer trying to apologise on three occasions – but the cashier refused to meet with her.
Yesterday, in a ruling made public for the first time, it emerged Mrs Morris who now works two days a week at another law firm has been fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £5,250 in costs following a hearing in London.