Litigation value: $500,000 to Toby; maybe a couple of bucks to Pam.

Welcome back Toby to The Office! For your trouble, how about a sizable money judgment courtesy of Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, and the good folks at Dunder Mifflin! Invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault . . . the list goes on and on. You’d think with all this action, Toby’s facial expression would have changed at some point during the episode. Alas, it’s not in his repertoire.

It’s been a while since we’ve had an episode containing such blatant improper behavior — and clear liability on behalf of the company. Whether it was Michael threatening Toby, Michael setting up Toby for a crime, or even Ryan and Kelly just making out in front of Toby (that really explicit, lippy making out, like in Top Gun — nasty), Toby endured a lifetime’s worth of emotional distress in just one workday.

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Cost of drinks: $500
Litigation Value: $100,000 – $1,000,000 (depends on how seriously someone gets hurt and who it is)
Watching the Drunken Debauchery: Priceless, but probably not worth the risk.

The problem that caught my attention during the “Business” Trip episode of The Office was the company-sponsored drinking event that led to Andy and Oscar drunk-dialing Angel and Michael going home with the concierge. When employees get drunk at office parties, the company can be held liable for their actions.

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Litigation Value: $50,000.

In this week’s episode of The Office, Michael Scott is on camera calling Kelly Kapoor dusky and exotic, and then Dwight Schrute, the assistant to the regional manager, refers to her southern India birth before he threatens her. A jury somewhere will find against Dunder Mifflin for race discrimination. Of course, that jury would have to ignore Kelly sabotaging Dwight’s and Jim’s bonuses and then claiming she was raped when she was caught in her misconduct. (“You cannot just say that you’ve been raped and expect all your problems to go away. Not again, don’t keep doing that.”) But still, some people will sympathize with Kelly.

It’s fitting that the Dunder Mifflin gang brought race discrimination to our attention this week, after the historic election of Barack Obama. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment, is not even 50 years old, and now we have a black President. (The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also outlawed discrimination based on religion, gender, and national origin — interestingly, gender was added at the last minute by a Virginia congressman who thought its inclusion would kill the bill.) This piece of legislation drastically changed the face of employment law. It allowed the Kelly Kapoors of the world to file lawsuits when the Michael Scotts of the world called them dusky.

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