A former “The Price is Right” model won her very own $777,000 showcase in a courtroom showdown with producers who she claims discriminated against her when she became pregnant.
Brandi Cochran says that the game show’s producers, FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions, subjected her to insults such as “wide load” while she was pregnant, then refused to let her return to the show following her maternity leave. According to Cochran’s suit, one of her previous pregnancies ended in a miscarriage resulting from the stress of keeping the news secret at work.
On Tuesday, a California jury awarded the former model almost $777,000. The trial will now proceed to a second phase, to determine if Cochran should receive punitive damages.
FremantleMedia denies Cochran’s allegations, and says it plans to appeal. "We believe the verdict in this case was the result of a flawed process in which the court, among other things, refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40 percent of our models have been pregnant,” the company said in a statement.
Read more at the Associated Press.
For more InsideCounsel coverage of pregnancy-related lawsuits, see:
Hobby Lobby must cover morning-after pill, judge rules
Firing of pregnant first-year employee ruled illegal
Woman sues birth control pill maker for unintended pregnancy
Labor: EEOC to focus on pregnancy and caregiving-based discrimination
