Wrongful Termination

If you have been terminated from your job or are working in a stile environment, you need to know if you have any legal rights that you can enforce. Most people that are terminated from their jobs or work in extremely hostile environment do not have any legal claim that they can assert against the company. In many cases, it is perfectly legal for the employer to terminate you in an un-fair manner, to be rude to you, to yell at you, and to refuse to tell you why you were terminated. This website will help you understand why that is the law and also explain when a termination or hostile work environment can entitle you to legal compensation. If you feel you do have a legal claim and would like to enforce you rights, please contact my office as soon as possible because you can greatly benefit from early and aggressive assistance.

Basics of At-Will Employment

The first thing that you need to determine is whether your employment is considered "at-will." The vast majority of employment in California is considered "at-will." Unless you work under a union contract or have signed a contract that guarantees you a job for a period of time, your employment will likely be considered "at-will." There are cases where oral promises or guarantees alter the "at-will" nature of your employment, but these cases can be difficult to prove. Typically, these will come up when the employer has a "unwritten" policy that employees are only fired for cause. Despite popular belief, oral contract as fully enforcible. The problem is proving that one exists and what the exact terms are is very difficult, especially in the employment context.

If your employment is "at-will," the employer can terminate you at any time for any reason or for no reason at all. The term "any reason" means that the employer can terminate you for an un-fair reason, they can terminate you based on a lie, they can terminate you because they "suspect" you did something wrong but have no real proof, they can terminate you without notice, they can terminate you by email, they can terminate you by text-message. For at-will employees, the balance is largely in the employer's favor. What you need to determine is whether the employer violated one of the laws that protects employees.

Illegal Reasons to Terminate Employees

If you are an "at-will" employee, you will only have a legal claim if the real reason that your employer terminated you is because of your age, ancestry, national origin, race, religion, color, disability, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, certain medical conditions, or because you reported some illegal or unsafe working conditions.

If the real reason you were terminated is not on the above list, then you will likely not have a claim against the employer. I discuss this in more detail in a podcast on wrongful termination.

Legal Reasons to Terminate Employees

I receive numerous inquires each week from employees that feel they were wrongfully terminated and want to sue their employer. Approximately only one in twenty of these individuals actually have a legal claim that they can pursue for wrongful termination. The following are some reasons that may seem unfair, and are certainly unfortunate, but they are not illegal: Fired without a warning, fired because the boss' wife didn't like you, fired because they suspected you stole from the company when in fact you can prove that you did not, fired because the boss wanted to replace you with a friend, fired because you came in late when you could not help it because of an accident on the freeway, fired because the boss wanted to take all of "your" sales accounts (they are not "your" sales accounts, they belong to the company), fired because they did not believe your side of the story relating to an incident, fired because you could not meet unrealistic goals, fired because they really wanted to eliminate your position, fired but they never hired a replacement, and fired because they said they were downsizing when in fact they were hiring.

It is important to note that the above list is only accurate if the stated reason for your firing is not a pretext for an illegal firing based on your age, race, gender, etc. That is, if they fire you because they say they suspected you of stealing, but the real reason is that the new manager wants to fire all the employees of a certain race, then that would be illegal. The problems with proving this are likely why you need an attorney to assist you with the claim.

Other Claims Against the Employer

Frequently, the employee who is terminated does not have a claim for wrongful termination, but they may have a valid claim for other labor violations. Many people who contact my office for wrongful termination end up suing for unpaid overtime. If after reading this website, you feel that you do not have a good wrongful termination or hostile work environment claim, please see my other informative websites to see if the employer is committing any other labor violations. These include: unpaid overtime, missed meal breaks, and various other employment law violations. My office has been very successful at recovering money from employers who violate the law by using any number of different legal theories.