Fired Unfairly: What Should I Do?

To prove you are a victim of wrongful termination, the employment attorney that you work with from Morgan and Morgan presents evidence of wrongdoing committed by your employer. The wrongdoing committed by your employer must violate state or federal law.

Discrimination

According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers cannot discriminate based on several criteria, including race, gender, national origin, and sexual orientation. Employers that terminate workers based on one of the protected criteria written into the landmark federal civil rights law have committed an act of wrongful termination. If you believe your employer fired you because of one or more of the protected criteria listed under Title VII, you should act quickly by meeting with one of the accomplished employment attorneys at Morgan and Morgan.

Creating a hostile work environment to force a worker to quit is another example of an act of discrimination in the workplace.

Retaliation

Firing a worker represents one of the most common tactics used by employers to retaliate against an employee. Retaliation often is the unlawful response to an employee who files a complaint with a state or federal agency concerning a legal violation committed by the employer. For example, your employer cannot terminate the employment relationship because you filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Whistleblowers receive legal protections established by federal law, as well as the statutes passed by a majority of states. Another common type of retaliation unfolds when an employer fires a worker over a wage dispute.

Family and Medical Leave Act

Your employer cannot end the employment relationship because you took advantage of the legal guidelines set by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Under the FLMA, you have the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for a wide variety of family and healthcare reasons. One of the most common reasons for employees to invoke the legal protection granted by the FMLA regards a worker who needs time off to take care of a new addition to the family. If you took time off to tend to a family or medical issue and your employer refused to accept your return to work, you might have a strong enough case to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

If your employer fired you unfairly, you probably want to know the answer to the question, “What should I do?” Answering the question becomes much easier when you meet with one of the skilled litigators at Morgan and Morgan. Our experienced team of employment attorneys offers several types of legal support that help clients fight back against one or more acts of wrongful termination.

Gain an Understanding of Your Rights

During orientation, you completed an onboarding process that included a detailed description of your rights as granted by the at-will employment principle. The rights typically appear under a section of an employee handbook. What the employee handbook does not describe is your rights when it comes to an act of wrongful determination. Meeting with one of the accomplished employment attorneys at Morgan and Morgan allows you to gain an understanding of every one of your legal rights, as well as the remedies you have to seek justice.

File a Complaint With the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Before you file a civil lawsuit for wrongful termination, the employment lawyer assigned to your case by Morgan and Morgan guides you through the process for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). For most types of employment disputes, workers must first notify the EEOC before taking legal action in the form of filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Your attorney ensures you submit a persuasive complaint that includes enough physical and anecdotal evidence to convince the EEOC to take legal action against your employer for committing at least one act of wrongful termination.

Negotiate a Settlement

Most wrongful termination lawsuits never see the light inside of a courtroom. Instead, both parties try to negotiate a settlement that avoids a costly and time-consuming civil trial. Negotiations start when your employment attorney submits a reasonable offer. A reasonable offer should include the value of economic damages, as well as the value of non-economic damages such as the costs associated with pain and suffering. The other party can either accept or reject the offer, as well as send back a counteroffer that keeps the negotiations in play as a possible legal option for resolving your case.

Several rounds of counteroffer submissions can occur before both parties agree to a settlement or decide to take the case to the trial phase of the litigation process.

One of the most important legal services provided by a highly-rated labor attorney at Morgan and Morgan concerns calculating a fair value for monetary damages. Three prominent factors play a role in determining how much your wrongful termination case is worth.

Past and Future Wages

As the most obvious factor that contributes to the value of monetary damages, lost wages can help you recover from the financial distress issues caused by one or more acts of wrongful termination. What is not as obvious is how does your employment lawyer calculate a value for lost wages? Not only must your lawyer calculate a value for past wages, but you also deserve compensation for future wages as a result of your employer unlawfully terminating the employment relationship. How far into the future you should receive compensation depends on several factors, which an experienced labor attorney from Morgan and Morgan helps you determine.

Lost Benefits

In addition to receiving compensation for past and future wages, you also deserve compensation for any lost benefits. Wrongfully losing a job can mean you have to pay out-of-pocket for costly medical bills. You also might have lost the compound benefit associated with an employer-contributed retirement plan. Your employment attorney considers the value of all types of employee benefits to calculate a reasonable value for monetary damages.

Pain and Suffering

As opposed to lost wages and benefits, you might also qualify to receive compensation for pain and suffering. Losing a job for any reason can trigger a wide variety of negative emotions. Being the victim of one or more acts of wrongful termination can exacerbate negative emotions to the point when they take a considerable negative toll on your mental and emotional health. The employment attorney assigned to your case by Morgan and Morgan calculates a reasonable value for pain and suffering by using a formula that factors in the value of economic damages such as lost wages and benefits.

Choosing the right employment lawyer involves considering several criteria. At Morgan and Morgan, every one of our litigators checks the following boxes.

Proven Record of Success

You should consider an attorney who has compiled an impressive record of getting clients the compensation they deserve for falling victim to one or more acts of wrongful termination. Although years of experience matter, it is more about the quality of the experience than the number of years practicing employment law.

Specializes in Handling Wrongful Termination Cases

It is not enough to work with an employment attorney. You also should work with a lawyer who specializes in litigating wrongful termination cases. At Morgan and Morgan, our team of employment attorneys covers every aspect of employment law, from wage disputes to one or more acts of wrongful termination.

With You All the Way

Far too many employment attorneys meet with clients for a free case evaluation, only to disappear for the remainder of a case. When you hire one of the employment attorneys at Morgan and Morgan, you can expect the same experienced litigator to represent you from the day of the free case evaluation to the day when your case gets resolved.

Learn more about your employment rights by scheduling a free case evaluation with one of the highly-skilled attorneys from Morgan and Morgan.