Wrongful Termination
If you have recently lost your job or you’ve been compelled to quit as a result of a hostile work environment, you may have grounds to file a wrongful termination claim. Your employer may have offered you a severance package in exchange for the surrender of your right to sue your employer for wrongful termination. If you’ve been given a few days to consider the terms of a severance agreement, don’t wait to schedule a free, no-obligation, confidential consultation so that our experienced legal team can review the terms of your severance agreement before your consideration period runs its course. Signing away your right to sue for wrongful termination is not a task that should be approached lightly or in an uninformed manner. Especially if you have been mistreated at work, you may be entitled to significant compensation through the wrongful termination claims process. By signing a severance agreement before you have determined whether you have strong grounds for a wrongful termination case, you may be giving up a significantly valuable right.
Even if you have not been
offered a severance agreement in the wake of a layoff or discharge of employment, you’ll want to schedule a confidential, no-cost case evaluation with our team to clarify your rights and explore your options under the law. Whether you’re classified as an “at-will” or “just cause” employee, you cannot be lawfully terminated in any capacity (including layoffs) for certain discriminatory or retaliatory reasons. Avoid making any assumptions about your legal options until you’ve spoken with our team. This area of law is notoriously complex and you may hold far more power in this situation than you’ve been led to believe. It isn’t always easy to know whether you’ve been wrongfully terminated. However, our knowledgeable, experienced team understands how to uncover the truth and how to advocate efficiently and effectively on behalf of our clients in the event that they have been wronged.
Knowledgeable Representation on Behalf of Terminated Workers
The loss of one’s livelihood, especially in the event that the loss in question was caused by unlawful behavior on the part of an employer, can be financially, practically, and emotionally devastating. Understand that our firm will treat your termination matter with the utmost focus and seriousness of purpose because we understand that few transitions in life can be as immediately and significantly consequential as a loss of employment. We choose to offer free case evaluations to all terminated employees interested in learning about their legal options, partially because this area of the law is complex and requires context to understand effectively. As a worker, you are entitled to rights under the law. You should not be denied the full and effective exercise of those rights simply because you don’t have extensive experience handling employment law cases. Our experienced team devotes our time to the study and practice of this area of law so that our clients can benefit from that knowledge directly. We’ll handle the legal “heavy lifting” so that you don’t have to.
Are You an At-Will or a “Just Cause” Worker?
Per Cal. Labor Code § 2922, if an employee’s contract does not specify the length of that worker’s employment or does not specify otherwise, that worker is presumed to be an “at-will” employee. Practically speaking, this means that the worker may generally be terminated at any time, for any lawful reason or for no reason at all. Similarly, the employee may quit at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. This classification stands in contrast to an employee whose job security cannot be compromised unless “just cause” is provided by the employer. With that said, neither type of employee may lawfully be laid off or
discharged from employment due to unlawful reasons. Therefore, even if an employee can ordinarily be terminated for “any reason or no reason,” if the employer’s reasoning is unlawful, that worker may have strong
grounds to file a wrongful termination suit.
Wrongful Termination – An Introduction
During the early 1980s, a California Supreme Court decision known as Tameny v. Arco Oil, limited the then-broad scope of at-will discharge of workers on the part of their employers. This is the reason why wrongful termination claims are sometimes referred to as Tameny claims. The Tameny case, in which a teenaged worker refused to price fix on behalf of their employer, essentially created the public policy exception to at-will employment discharges. Wrongful termination cases may now be filed in the wake of any layoff or involuntary discharge scenario in which an employer terminates an employee for reasons prohibited by law. Additionally, these claims may be filed in some cases, even if the worker has quit voluntarily, provided that the decision to quit was compelled by a hostile work environment. When a wrongful termination case is successful, the affected worker may be awarded compensation and/or may be reinstated at their job.
Common, Unlawful Reasons that Workers Are Terminated
Presently, there are four primary categories of unlawful reasons why workers in the U.S. (both documented and undocumented) are wrongfully terminated. These categories are:
- Public-policy exceptions
- Employment contract breaches
- Statutory exceptions
- Implied contract exceptions
Employers usually do what they can to mask violations of the law as they pertain to wrongful terminations. They may make excuses about the worker’s performance, may insist that layoffs are occurring in a non-discriminatory manner, or may reject the idea that a termination has been initiated as a means of retaliation. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to work with an attorney who can evaluate your case in detail before making any assumptions about whether you have grounds for a wrongful termination claim. Just as a physician may fail to disclose that a mistake caused a patient harm, as physicians prefer to avoid litigation whenever possible, an employer is unlikely to be frank about the fact that a worker is being laid off or discharged for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons. Our experienced firm can help to uncover the truth regarding why you have been let go. Some of the most common reasons that our clients have been forced to grapple with wrongful termination include:
- Age discrimination
- Alerting authorities to unsafe working conditions
- “Blowing the whistle” on illegal activities or business practices
- Filing a workers’ compensation claim
- Filing a discrimination claim with governmental authorities and/or human resources
- Missing work to vote or serve on a jury
- Participation in union activities
- Pregnancy
- Racial discrimination
- Refusal to engage in illegal conduct
- Refusing requests for personal, sexual, or financial favors
- Religious discrimination
- Reporting for military service
- Requesting reasonable accommodations for a disability
- Retaliation for engaging in legally-protected activity
- Sex discrimination
- Sexual orientation discrimination
- Taking legally-protected family leave or medical leave
As noted above, if you have been offered a severance agreement, know that accepting the terms of that legally-binding contract (provided it is enforceable) will likely result in the surrender of your right to sue your employer for wrongful termination. Oftentimes, workers are tempted to accept the terms of a severance agreement because they are understandably panicking about the reality of losing their wages and benefits. If you have been given a few days to consider the terms of your severance agreement, call our firm now to review its terms. Depending on your unique circumstances, you may be entitled to far more compensation through the wrongful termination claims process than you’ve been offered via severance agreement. Employers generally extend severance package offers to workers whom they believe may be inclined to sue them. It may or may not be in your best interests to accept the terms of the severance agreement as offered. Our firm can help you to unravel the terms of the contract and advise you accordingly.
Compensation for Successful Wrongful Termination Cases
Most of the time, workers can seek compensation (also known as financial damages) for the following kinds of harm if they have strong grounds to file a wrongful termination claim:
- Anxiety and other emotional trauma resulting from the termination
- Attorney’s fees and legal costs
- Loss of benefits
- Lost wages – both past and future
- Punitive damages – only if an employer has engaged in fraud or is guilty of malice
Additionally, workers are entitled to any wages they are owed at the time of termination. If your employer has withheld any of your wages, this action is unlawful per Cal. Labor Code § 201. Similarly,
Cal. Labor Code § 227.3 and
Cal. Labor Code § 201 entitle workers to compensation for any accrued and unused paid time offer and earned commissions. Therefore, if your employer has withheld any of these forms of compensation, your wrongful termination claim can address this wrongdoing as well.
Cal. Labor Code § 203 even allows a worker who has been denied any of these forms of compensation to collect “waiting time penalties” in an amount equal to their ordinary daily pay rate multiplied (up to 30) days that the worker was denied their rightful pay.
Consultation Preparation Considerations
When preparing for your confidential, no-cost case evaluation with our experienced legal team, gather together any documentation that will allow us to more fully understand the details and nuances of your case. For example, you’ll want to bring along any severance agreement paperwork that your employer has provided, in addition to any paperwork related to your termination. If you have a copy of your original employment contract, please bring that along with you as well. If you have been discriminated against, retaliated against, or harassed, bring along any evidence of that conduct (emails, texts, contact information for witnesses to the unlawful behavior) that you may have in your possession. Finally, take some time to write down any questions and concerns that you may have at this time. Consultation appointments tend to “fly by” and we don’t want to risk that you’ll leave our office with unanswered questions and unaddressed concerns.
Contact Our Firm Today for a Free Case Evaluation
Losing your livelihood can affect every aspect of your life and the foundation of your family’s wellbeing. Our firm treats wrongful termination cases with a unique seriousness of purpose because our extensive advocacy efforts on behalf of wrongfully terminated employees have allowed us to understand the full scope of consequences that job loss can result in. If you choose to work with our firm, we will seek significant results on your behalf as we build the strongest possible case under the circumstance. Whether you’re in a position to file a wrongful termination lawsuit, a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a claim with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or you will be best served by seeking legal recourse in an alternative way, our firm will advocate passionately on your behalf at every step in the process. If you haven’t already scheduled a confidential, no-obligation, no-cost consultation with our firm, please do so now. Don’t wait. We look forward to speaking with you.