Barzin Barry Sabahat, JD

To determine if you have a case, you have to talk to an attorney in the state in which you were terminated. Most plaintiff's lawyers provide a free initial consultation, so you should be able to find out if you have a case for no cost. Without seeing an attorney first, determining if you have a case will be somewhat difficult. Assuming you live in an at-will state, you will need to first determine if you are a member of a protected class. These are typically, age, race, national origin, gender and pregnancy, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Then you will need to determine whether an adverse employment action was taken against you. These would include termination, demotion, reduction in pay, transfer, etc. The next thing to determine is whether the adverse employment action was related to your being a member of the protected class. The best way to determine this is to see if other similarly situated employees who are not members of the same class have been treated similarly. For example, if you are an African American man who had a car accident and is being terminated as a result, but a white American who had a similar accident and was not terminated would, then this may show a difference in treatment that would be considered discriminatory action. Finally, you will need to determine what, if any were your damages. Damages can range from loss of income to emotional distress as a result of harassment. And you will need to make sure you do all of this in the time allowed to bring your action. California (as with federal cases) also mandate exhaustion of administrative remedies before a lawsuit can be filed. That means at the least, a "right to sue letter" should be obtained from either EEOC (Federal) or DFEH (California). Make sure that you see a lawyer though, even if you don't think you have a case.

Compensation depends on where you file your action and what the employer did to you. For example, in California's State Courts, a wrongfully terminated employee may be able to recover not only lost income and reinstatement, but also emotional distress, punitive damages for particularly egregious conduct, and attorney fees. Actions filed in the Federal Court under Title VII of the United States Codes provide for reinstatement, lost of pay, and attorney fees.

Yes. If you work in an "at-will" state, then the employer does not need any reason to terminate your employment so long as they don't do it for a bad reason. (Discrimination, whistle-blower, etc.) As a result, if your employer receives a complaint phone call from someone, the employer is well within his or her rights to terminate your employment. Keep in mind, office politics may be bad for business, but they are not against the law and neither is being abrasive and unpleasant. So your boss can be a "jerk" and still be well within his rights to terminate you for no reason at all.