Wrongful termination is when an employer illegally discharges an employee through a breach of contract or breaking a law. If you have been wrongfully terminated, get in touch with one of our wrongful termination lawyers in Redlands to start the process of suing your employer. We all wish employers were rational, well-meaning, law-abiding individuals, but the truth is, they’re not always. If you’ve been put in the unfortunate position of feeling the consequences of an unlawful employer and have been wrongfully terminated, let one our Redlands wrongful termination lawyers from California Labor Law Employment Attorneys Group help you fight back.
Wrongful termination can stem from many different issues. One of the most prevalent violations made in a wrongful termination case is of an anti-discrimination law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is a federal law that protects individuals from being discriminated against in the workplace. Title VII prohibits any kind of employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Employment discrimination is made up of unlawful employment practices which include hiring and firing; compensation, assignments, and classifications; transfer, promotion, layoff, and recall; job advertisements; recruiting; training; testing; use of company facilities; fringe benefits; pay, retirement plans, and disability leave; and other terms and conditions of employment. Keep in mind, any discrimination related to pregnancy, childbirth, and a related medical condition is considered sex discrimination and prohibited under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that was amended to Title VII. You are completed protected under Title VII as long as your employer employs 15 or more people. If you feel as if you have been discriminated against in any way based on these categories you must talk to one of our discrimination attorneys in Redlands.
Discrimination and wrongful termination
If you believe you have been discriminated against at work, you can file a complaint with the EEOC who will investigate your claims. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is a state anti-discrimination law that is similar to Title VII, but covers employees at companies with only 5 or more employees. The FEHA prohibits employment discrimination against anyone under a protected category. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) lists all the protected categories as race and color, national origin and ancestry, religion and creed, age (over 40), mental and physical disability, sex and gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, medical condition, marital status, and military or veteran status. To file a complaint through the DFEH you must first fill out an intake form which can be found online. If you have already filed a complaint with the EEOC, this information is automatically passed on to the DFEH, so you do not have to file another one with the DFEH. Our discrimination attorneys in Redlands will be happy to help you through this process, just pick up the phone and give us a call.
Other attorneys will sign you up for their firm but will disappear once your name is on the paper as they are busy signing up more cases. In these instances, their business is based more on volume and will attempt to sign up as many cases as possible. In turn, they will spend less time on cases resulting in severely reduced settlements. Our firm will not treat you like a number. We will be in communication with you throughout our lawsuit and will treat you like family. So if you already have an attorney don’t worry, we’ll give you a second review of your case 100% free of charge.
Retaliation is illegal
Furthermore, it is against the law for your employers to retaliate if you have asserted your rights under these laws. If you have been fired in retaliation from your employer, you have been wrongfully terminated and should respond with a lawsuit. As you can see, discrimination and wrongful termination cases are often connected. So it’s very likely you have a discrimination and wrongful termination case on your hands if your employer discriminated against your by firing you based on a your identification under a protected category or if they fired you because you filed a discrimination claim against them. In fact, even if you were not terminated, but faced any kind of negative job repercussions from filing a claim, then you can sue your employer. Let our wrongful termination attorneys help you fight against both work discrimination and unlawful discharges.
The DFEH outline several possible remedies available for those who have been discriminated against as back pay, front pay, hiring or reinstatement, promotion, out-of-pocket expenses, policy changes, training, reasonable accommodations, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees and costs. Federal law puts a cap on how much compensatory damage may be remedied from a wrongful termination lawsuit based on the size of a company. For companies with 15-100 employees the most you can claim is $50,000, for companies with 101-200 employees you can receive up to $100,000, for companies with 201-500 employees you may be able to receive up to $200,000, and if you are at a large company with 500 or employees, your compensatory damages can reach up to $300,000. Let our redlands wrongful termination lawyers help you recover as much as possible. We understand that starting a lawsuit may not always be about the money and may serve a type of emotional relief and redemption, but a little extra cash for your misfortune does not hurt at all.
Wrongful termination lawyers in Redlands
Other ways in which you may have been wrongfully terminated include a violation of your rights under the workers’ compensation program. Every employer is required to pay for workers’ compensation insurance to cover employees who have injured themselves on the job. If you have filed a workers’ compensation claim, or have informed your employer that you plan to, and their response was to fire you, then you were wrongfully terminated. It is your legal right to file a workers’ compensation claim with the assertion that you will keep you job in doing so. Wrongful termination cases also can stem from whistleblowing. The California Whistleblower Protection Act serves to protect employees who report illegal activities at their work from being retaliated against. Your employer may have also wrongfully terminated you by initiating a breach in contract. California law does not require an employment contract to be written, it can be implied and be just as legitimate. So if you had a contract with your employer, explicit or implicit, that guaranteed you would obtain your job for a certain amount of time, and your employer fired you before that time was up, then they have illegally terminated you. Call our office to speak with one of our Redlands wrongful termination lawyers to help build up your case to prove your contract had been broken through your employer firing you. Employers like this must be held accountable for their wrongdoings.
Free Consultation and Zero Fee Guarantee
If you have been wrongfully terminated in any way, then your rights have been violated. You must send the message to your employer that this is not acceptable and that you have rights as an employee. Whether it’s through discrimination, a violation of workers’ compensation laws, a breach of contract, or illegal retaliation, your rights are important and should be fought for. Give us a call to schedule a free consultation where we can go over all the details of your case. We will also not charge you anything to take on your case and represent you. Our zero-fee guarantee includes no upfront costs and fees are only asked of if we win your case. If you have already consulted with an attorney but would like a second opinion, one of our wrongful termination attorneys will gladly give you one free of charge. Together we can make sure employers with illegal practices are punished for their crimes.
