Practice Areas

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An attorney should review your case. The following information is intended to be informational and general. 

Before you contact the office consider these five points to help guide our discussion.

1. An employer can legally fire you for any reason or no reason at all unless there are protections under the law. This is called "at-will" employment. If there is no employment contract or union, neither side must remain in the employment arrangement. In other words, your employment may come to an end at any moment.  An employer failing to follow its employment policies is not, on its face, discrimination. Many employees are fired for reasons that don't make sense and are subject to knee-jerk reactions. Employers get to pick winners and losers unless the reasoning was unlawful. An example of an illegal termination is one based on discrimination (sex, gender, disability, pregnancy, military status, race, religion, etc.), retaliation, or whistleblowing.

2. Lawsuits are based on establishing liability and damages. First, you need to prove your employer is liable for discriminatory conduct and then prove you lost something. In most employment cases, damages are primarily the loss of wages. For this reason, if you were fired today, it's hard to value your case because we don’t know how long you will be out of a job. If you are out of work for a year, that could be a sizable lawsuit. If you get a new job within a month, your case would be very limited, and you may want to move on. Emotional damages are available, but they are usually connected to the loss of wages unless the emotional damages are very severe.

3. Knowing what you want out of the case is very helpful for the attorney. It's not likely that you will get someone fired or get an apology letter. Money is the simplest award available in a lawsuit. You might be able to get some accountability and policy change, but courts are hesitant to tell businesses how to run themselves. 

4. If you still have your job and haven’t been fired, you likely are worried about losing your job. These situations are not usually lawsuits because there has been no job separation (i.e. it’s not a wrongful termination). However, you can still hire an attorney to help manage your employment issues by encouraging your employer to follow the law.

5. It’s always best to have the person who wants to sue on the phone. Because each situation is so different, I want to make sure I have the testimony of the potential client. Second, I want to make sure any potential client has an opportunity to discuss the costs, risks, possible outcomes, benefits, and headaches involved in litigation. It is not for the faint of heart. 

Please contact our office if you have questions or if you feel like you facing discrimination.

What is a hostile work environment?

A hostile work environment is a legal term. It is not a "rumor mill" or "high school" or unpleasant place atmosphere. Under the law, employees are not guaranteed a happy and fun job, but the environment should not be filled with discriminatory attitudes. A common hostile work environment is a "boy's club." Women are not treated as equals and males demean females. The environment causes employees to suffer from emotional harm which may cause employees to quit. Or perhaps, an employee stands up and is fired for fighting the entrenched system. 

Hostile work environments cas be based sex, gender, race, religion, military status, pregnancy,disabilty etc. Employees facing hostile work environments should seek an attorney before quitting to discuss the possible outcomes.

Please contact our office If you think you are experiencing a hostile work environment.