Lake Elsinore wrongful termination attorneys
Every year, hundreds of thousands of employees are terminated from their positions. Although there are often legitimate reasons for these firings, such as layoffs, poor performances, and a decrease of redundant positions, there are also times when the terminations were illegal. These illegal terminations often pass by unknown to the workers, though; they may never realize that their rights were violated. If you were let go from your job but you feel that you were targeted or that your boss acted illegally, you can contact our firm, the California Labor Law Employment Attorneys Group. We have a team of experienced attorneys to take care of your case. You will not find a more capable and professional team of Lake Elsinore wrongful termination attorneys – we are among the best in the business and won’t stop pursuing your rightful compensation.

Information about Employment

There are many laws surrounding labor laws, such as wages, amount of hours that can be worked, overtime, and more. Something that should be understood is at-will employment, which allows employers to terminate their workers for any reason at any time. They can simply let them go because they feel like it, and the practice is not illegal. Similarly, employees do not have to remain loyal or locked in to a company – they can also freely leave at any time and do not have to put in notice or sign any waivers.

If any contracts were signed prior to employment, they must be adhered to completely, or the party could face dire consequences for breaking the terms of the agreement.

At-will employment does not allow managers to fire individuals for unlawful reasons, though. There are many ways that workers can be targeted and fired for illegal reasons, and it can be hard to identify what the true reason was. If you have a bad feeling about being terminated, you should look to your traits and see if there was any history of your employer behaving in a similar manner with other individuals. You may have cause for a wrongful termination lawsuit, and you can call our Lake Elsinore wrongful termination lawyers to consider your evidence and tell you if we think you were victimized or not.

Laws Protecting Employees

If you do not know the laws protecting you as a worker, you may have a very hard time recognizing any discrimination, and you may not know what you can be targeted for. Some laws specifically protect certain traits, and if you are targeted or fired because of the trait, you can take legal action. A few of the laws include:

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 (traits include religion, sex, color, race, nation of origin, and more)
  • Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1990 (including expecting mothers, mothers on maternity leave, and similar)
  • Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (workers over the age of 40 are protected)
  • Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (handicapped and disabled individuals cannot be wrongfully terminated or discriminated against, and businesses must provide reasonable accommodations)

These Federal Acts primarily deal with discrimination in employment. If you feel that you have been targeted for a specific trait and you suffered a termination because of it, you can contact our law firm for more assistance. We will connect you with one of our wrongful termination attorneys in Lake Elsinore for more assistance.

Wrongful Termination Types

Although laws protect workers from discrimination and subsequent termination, there are other protections available. Discrimination is still the most common cause of wrongful firing, though, whether it be sexual (disparate pay for women), religious (denied prayer time or holiday observation), racial (targeted for being a minority), or similar. Other forms of wrongful termination include the following:

  • Retaliation: Retaliation occurs when your employer takes action against you after you did something they do not like that can be held against them. For example, if you were sexually harassed at work and you filed a complaint, that could lead to negative publicity and a change in policy at the workplace. This in turn could irritate management, and lead to you getting fired for protecting your own rights as an employee.
  • Whistle blowing: If you suspect or know that there are illegal activities or unsavory actions going on at your workplace, you could report the acts to authorities or to the media for exposure and correction. For example, if you know that there are health code violations happening, you could contact the necessary authorities. If you blow the whistle, as it’s called, your job cannot fire you in retaliation for doing so.
  • Breach of public policy: It is within your rights as a citizen to take leave from work to vote in elections or to serve on jury duty if it is required of you. Your boss cannot terminate you for acting on your duties as a citizen.
  • Breach of contract: You may have a contract that states that you cannot be fired until a certain amount of time has passed, unless you have been consistently given negative reviews, or until a certain job or task is completed.

There are also protections against being fired while on sick leave, maternity leave, or paternity leave. You may further not be fired because you requested reasonable accommodations due to injury or disability or because you filed for worker’s compensation.
If you believe your termination was illegal, contact our wrongful termination attorneys in Lake Elsinore for more assistance. We can help you file a claim and receive the compensation you deserve.

Procedure after a Termination

It can be difficult to know what to do after you have been wrongfully terminated. In many cases, wrongful termination will come about after a period of discrimination; it seldom happens with no previous warnings. You may have noticed a pattern of behavior that supports your claim that your employer was targeting you. You may simply have noticed that the timing of your termination perfectly coincided with another action, such as your filing of a complaint.
Here’s what you should do to maximize your chances of success with your wrongful termination lawsuit:

  • Take pictures, videos, recordings, or anything else if there was physical proof of the discrimination or if the termination was occurring in real time
  • Print out emails and messages from your boss, coworkers, and the HR department if there were discussions of the actions ahead of time
  • Interview coworkers and clients for their statements or testimonies about your termination or if they can provide other examples of similar firings
  • If another worker was hired at the same time as you were fired for a substantial difference in pay, you could use this as evidence
  • Produce any contracts, handbooks, agreements, or clauses that would support your case; these documents can prove crucial (verbal agreements can also be utilized, but they are extremely difficult to prove, especially if the agreement were simply between two people or if the language were vague or purposely misleading)
  • Your performance reviews, evaluations, and productivity reports can be used to show a positive rating throughout your career
  • You should have a journal or some kind of testimony from yourself detailing the events as they happened; surveillance video footage can support your claim

The more evidence you have, the more likely it is that you will succeed with your claim. Claims that do not have any backup testimony from others or that lack any concrete proof are often doomed to fail. Our lawyers will do all we can with your evidence, and we will even do our part in hiring expert witnesses and digging deeper into the company to discover if there are any other examples of wrongful terminations that could give more credence to your claim. Call our wrongful termination attorneys in Lake Elsinore for more assistance.

Potential Compensation from a Wrongful Termination Lawsuit

As a victim of wrongful termination, you can receive various types of compensation for your mistreatment. Our lawyers will not stop pursuing your rightful settlement until we are satisfied with the result.

The most common form of compensation you can earn is lost income from the time you were unemployed. This income can be your wages and salary, benefits, commissions from sales, promotions, raises, and more. If your case caused you to be out of work for time after the lawsuit, you could also collect future lost income.

You may have gone through quite an emotional turmoil from the wrongful termination, especially if it was a result of discrimination or some difficult mental strain. You can be covered for your PTSD, anxiety, fear, mental scarring, and more.

There may be the opportunity for you to be reinstated into your old position or even given another job within the company. However, many people choose to avoid these options due to the possibility of future mistreatment, whether with more discrimination, withholding of checks, scheduling troubles, and more.

If your employer acted in a particularly egregious manner with gross negligence, there may be punitive damages awarded to you. These damages are monetary and do not compensate anything in particular; instead, they merely punish the defendant for his actions, as jail time as a punishment is not available in civil cases and employment-related lawsuits. Many judges and juries view punitive damages as unnecessary and excessive, though, and as a result, only a talented lawyer with experience in wrongful termination claims will be able to win them for your case.

If you want the maximum settlement available to you, we recommend getting in touch with one of our Lake Elsinore wrongful termination attorneys.

The Top-Rated Employment Firm

The California Labor Law Employment Attorneys Group has been handling wrongful termination cases and other employment cases for years. Our lawyers are amply qualified and have a wealth of knowledge regarding labor regulations, and we have witnessed and litigated numerous cases. Our legal acumen is rivaled by none. We have recovered millions of dollars for our clients and will always aggressively pursue the fairest settlement available. You will have our dedication and care when we take on your claim.

For a free legal consultation, call our law offices. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will never share your personal or case information with anyone. We will give you the answers to any legal questions you have and will look over your case to tell you your chances of success and what we may be able to earn for you.

If you select us to represent you, we will ensure that you don’t pay a dime thanks to our zero fee guarantee. You won’t touch your own finances at any point throughout the legal process; we will cover the costs associated with the case, and if we win, our fees will be covered as a portion of the settlement won for you. If we lose, you walk away debt-free to our firm and we take no payment from any parties.

Our Lake Elsinore wrongful termination lawyers are waiting to take your call. Get in touch with the California Labor Law Employment Attorneys Group for more help.