What to Do if You Have Been Wrongfully Terminated
There are far too many people that are wrongfully terminated in the United States. Sometimes, these people may be able to hire a wrongful termination lawyer and use the wrongful termination employment laws to file a lawsuit that could get them their job back or at least get you a settlement to help you while you are looking for a new job. Having said that, if you talk to a wrongful termination lawyer, they might tell you that most people in the United States are at-will employees, meaning that you can leave your time whenever you want for whatever reason and you can be let go whenever, for whatever reason. However, you do have some rights. Here are a few times when it was illegal to fire you.
Your Employer is in Violation of a Written Promise
When you are hired for a job, you enter into a contract with your employer. This is either written or unwritten. It is an agreement that you are going to preform certain duties and they are going to pay you a certain amount. Sometimes, that contract specifies a guaranteed amount of time when you will have work. If your contract includes a time frame and you are let go or fired before that time is up, you could have a pretty good case to turn into your wrongful termination lawyer, if there is not a good cause for firing you. This also applies to employers that set up rules at their company and do not follow them. If your employer didn’t follow their own policy and go through the proper channels to fire you, this could also be grounds for a lawsuit.
You Were a Victim of Discrimination
There are certain discrimination laws that protect you during the hiring process. This includes race, gender, orientation, age, disability and nationality. Most places also have to honor pregnancy, marital status and military affiliation. If you have experienced some sort of discrimination against any of the above situations, it still can be difficult to prove that the discrimination occurred. Discuss with your wrongful termination lawyer how to best tackle this situation. Usually, if you file a discrimination case, it will up to your lawyer to prove that the termination was justified.
Good Faith and Fair Dealing Has Been Breached
You can not be fired for unfair employment practices in most of the states. If you were fired so that your employer wouldn’t need to pay you a sales commission or maternity benefits, then that would be considered a breach of good faith and fair dealing. This also applies to being misled regarding promotions or pay raises. Also included would be if you were fired so that your employer could hire someone in your place to whom they could pay less. Of course, all of these issues would need proof.
Your Employer Was Involved in Fraudulent Activity
If your employer committed from by tricking you with incorrect information and then had you use it and fired you for it, then you could have a wrongful termination claim on your hands. The hardest part about this kind of claim is that you need to know that the employer did this on purpose and that can be very difficult to do. If you can prove it, then you’ll be good but if you do not have physical proof, you may be discouraged from filing the claim at all.
You Were a Victim of Defamation
When you are fired, employers are not allowed to defame you in the process. This is when false information is spread regarding you and it damages your reputation or good standing. You’ll need to prove that the things spoken about you were more than just gossip. Your employer will have needed to act on or made comments as if the information was fact but in reality, it had not been properly looked into or vetted. The nice thing is that your employer only has to say or write these negative things to one other person for you to have a solid case.
Being wrongfully terminated for any reason is difficult enough but going through a case can be even harder so make sure you have all of your facts in place before you decide what to do.
