Answer to Anonymous

Anon:

Rather than just give you some case citations with a bunch of legalese, (that may or may not make sense to you), I figured giving you some authoritative articles, investigation services, monographs, and reports from 3rd parties would help you understand this evolving field. There are also a number of books that have been written on the subject, especially in the HR and Business Management field that you can pick up from Amazon. For a good introduction, that is not in legalese, try Nolo Press. One of the citations below is from the author that wrote their book for California.

A couple of investigation services:

http://www.diversifiedriskmanagement.com/investigations/workplace-violence.html

http://www.merrills-investigations.com/Workplace-Violence-Investigations.html

An overview on the subject and related issues out of UC Berkeley School of Business Management

http://are.berkeley.edu/APMP/pubs/lmd/html/summer_94/previol.html

A leading expert in the field, and her book:

http://workplaceviolencenews.com/books/books-2008/the-essential-guide-to-workplace-investigations-how-to-handle-employee-complaints-problems/

Cal OSHA Guidelines

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/worksecurity.html

Article giving overview of Federal Case Law

http://www.workviolence.com/articles/corporate_liability.htm

FBI National Study of Workplace Violence

http://www.fbi.gov/publications/violence.pdf

Article on recent developments for Employer Liability for Workplace Violence

http://www.liabilityconsultants.com/article.htm

California Specific Article on Employer Duties to prevent workplace violence

http://www.mediate.com/articles/larsen.cfm