Government Code § 12923
The Legislature’s harassment standard: a single incident can suffice
Section 12923 codifies a plaintiff-favorable harassment standard: a single serious incident can be actionable, and hostile-environment cases are rarely fit for summary judgment.
Read the official text at California Legislative Information →
Overview
Government Code section 12923, enacted in 2019, is a statement of legislative intent that recalibrates how California courts evaluate workplace-harassment claims under the FEHA. The Legislature enacted it to correct what it viewed as judicial decisions that had set the bar for hostile-environment claims too high, and it directs courts toward a more plaintiff-protective application of the “severe or pervasive” standard.
Although framed as findings and declarations, section 12923 has practical bite: it shapes the summary-judgment analysis in every harassment case and supplies authority for the proposition that even one serious incident can be actionable.
The legislative declarations
A single incident of harassing conduct is enough to create a triable issue of a hostile work environment if it unreasonably interfered with the plaintiff’s work performance or created an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
The plaintiff need not show that his or her tangible productivity declined; it is enough that a reasonable person subjected to the conduct would find it harder to do the job.
The Legislature affirmed that hostile-environment cases involve issues “not determinable on paper” and are rarely appropriate for disposition on summary judgment.
Judicial construction
Section 12923 endorses the federal standard of Harris v. Forklift Systems and disapproves a narrower line of authority. The California Supreme Court applied its single-incident principle in Bailey v. San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, holding that even an isolated use of a racial slur by a coworker can be actionable harassment under the FEHA. (See Bailey; Lyle v. Warner Bros. on the “severe or pervasive” standard.)
Practice notes
Cite section 12923 to resist summary judgment in hostile-environment cases and to establish that a single severe incident can reach a jury. Marshal the totality of the conduct and frame the inquiry around whether a reasonable person would find the environment hostile, not whether the plaintiff’s output measurably dropped.
Related on this site
Practitioner analysis, current as of June 2026 — not the statute itself. Statutes are amended and decisional law evolves; confirm the operative language and current authority at the official source before relying.