When there is a complaint of sexual harassment to HR is it required for HR to report this to the company legal department before dismissing either party from their jobs? Also what does default findings mean? Thanks Faith

No, there is nothing in the law that says HR must report to corporate legal before they can take any action. While it would be a smart thing to do for many reasons, it is not legally required. For one thing, many employers do not HAVE a legal department.

The law requires the employer to conduct an inquiry into an allegation of sexual harassment, stop it if occurring and take steps to ensure that it doesn't recur. It doesn't vest those responsibilities to any particular part of management.

Don't you have an attorney? You should ask him/her what the term "default findings" mean in the context of your case. S/he has the relevant details about your matter to allow an accurate explanation of that term in your situation.

The company's sexual harassment policy reads that all sexual harassment reported to HR goes to manager of employee. If sexual harassment has been found then manager reports back to HR and HR is to forward to company's legal counsel. The company didn't even begin investigating until after they let me go. The company I worked for was big enough to have a legal counsel department. Thanks Faith

Faith, I think over the past several months we have beat your situation into the ground about as far as it will go. You need to either pursue this with your attorney or accept what happened and move on. No matter what anyone here tells you, not one single thing is going to change for you.