You pay nothing unless we recover for you.*
*Applies to employment and personal injury matters. Employment-based immigration visa matters are not handled on a contingency fee basis.
Workplace Discrimination
Experiencing discrimination at work not only undermines your sense of self-worth and belonging, but also hinders your professional growth and opportunities, making it a deeply distressing experience.
Almost nobody gets told why they were really passed over.
That is the central difficulty in a discrimination case, and it is also the reason the law does not require you to produce a confession.
WHAT THE LAW ACTUALLY PROTECTS
California law makes it unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire or employ a person, to bar or discharge a person from employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, reproductive health decision making, medical condition, marital status, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or military or veteran status.
Read that list again. It is longer than most people assume, and it covers decisions about pay and conditions, not just hiring and firing.
YOU DO NOT NEED A SMOKING GUN
This is the part that stops people from calling.
Courts recognize the problem directly. As one court put it, particularly because employers now know better, direct evidence of employment discrimination is rare. In most cases a plaintiff will be unable to produce direct evidence, and discriminatory intent must be proved by circumstantial evidence, such as a comparison of treatment between members of a protected class and majority class members.
The framework exists because of that problem
The United States Supreme Court designed a framework to aid in establishing discriminatory intent when only circumstantial evidence is available. California courts apply the same framework.
If direct evidence is available, that framework does not apply. You do not need it when someone said it out loud.
You do not have to prove you were qualified
A plaintiff is not required to prove he or she was qualified for the position as part of the prima facie case.
Employers frequently lead with "she wasn't qualified anyway." That is their argument to make, not your burden to pre-empt.
MIXED MOTIVES DO NOT DEFEAT YOUR CASE
Real decisions have more than one reason behind them. The law accounts for that.
If the employee succeeds in proving that a protected characteristic was one of several factors motivating the employment action, an employer cannot avoid liability altogether. The employer may assert an affirmative defense to bar certain types of relief by showing its use of a protected characteristic was not the "but for" cause of the challenged decision.
So "there were other reasons too" is not the end of the conversation. It changes what can be recovered, not whether the employer broke the law.
WHAT DISCRIMINATION ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
It is rarely a slur. It is usually a pattern:
The reviews that were fine for years and turned after you disclosed something.
The reorganization that eliminated exactly one position.
The comparator: someone outside your protected class who did the same thing and kept their job.
The promotion that went to someone with less experience, explained afterward with reasons that keep changing.
That last one matters more than people realize. Shifting explanations are evidence.
WHAT YOU CAN RECOVER
Lost wages and benefits, past and future. Compensation for emotional harm. In appropriate cases, punitive damages.
What a case is worth depends on facts specific to that case. Nobody can tell you a number on a website, and you should be skeptical of any firm that tries.
WHAT TO DO NOW
Write down the comparison. Who was treated differently, when, and by whom. Comparator evidence is often the strongest thing in a discrimination file, and it is the thing people forget first.
Keep the paper. Reviews, emails, texts, the org chart, the job posting. Forward anything you would lose if your work account were shut off tomorrow.
Do not sign anything on your way out without having someone read it.
Call.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CALL
1. A conversation, free, confidential, and no obligation. You tell us what happened. We ask questions.
2. We tell you honestly whether you have a case, including when you don't. We would rather say so on the first call than take a case that isn't there.
3. If we take it, we handle the filings and the deadlines. You go back to your life.
We don't get paid unless we recover for you. We advance all case costs and are reimbursed from the recovery. If there's no recovery, you owe nothing.
Call (818) 578-4969 for a free, confidential consultation.