Your value as an employee should never be determined by anything other than your skill set, aptitude, and job performance. When employment decisions are made solely based on your race, age, sex, religion, or any other legally protected characteristic, then it could be considered unlawful employment discrimination under California state law. But where exactly is the line – and how do you know when it’s been crossed? Oftentimes, workplace discrimination is subtle, indirect, and incremental, making it hard see clearly, or to even know that it’s happening. At Agemian Law Group, we’ve seen it all. We do know where that line is – and our highly experienced Glendale employment lawyers will not only be able to tell you if it’s been crossed but will defend your legal rights every step of the way forward.
Here are just a few of the more common types of employment law cases we see every month:
Going up against your current or former employer in a legal battle can feel overwhelming or intimidating to take on alone. You might even be wondering if it’s truly possible to make a huge company actually face justice for the mistakes they’ve made. That’s exactly where Vinny and the Agemian Law Group team come in -- as your trusted counsel, we’ll learn every tiny detail about your case, and then fight for you with every ounce of skill and passion we’ve got. We strongly believe in workers’ rights; and we believe that if you have experienced a breach of those rights, you deserve immediate compensation -- and swift justice -- to balance the scales back in your favor. To be clear, there is no company, employer, or organization that scares the Agemian Law Group Team. We’ve fought and won for employees from every walk of life imaginable, and we’re ready to fight for you next.
We’re sure you have questions -- in fact, you may never have thought that you’d need the help of an attorney before your accident or incident occurred. Agemian Law Group is here to help you make sense of what’s next.
California contains some of the most comprehensive state laws in the country when it comes to barring labor discrimination in any of the following:
- Job postings
- Interviews
- Hiring or screening job applicants
- Firing, transferring, promoting, or separating employees
- Working conditions and compensation
Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) – which is the state’s most prominent anti-discrimination law – it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against an individual based on a variety of factors, including:
- Race, color, ancestry, or national origin
- Religion
- Sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions)
- Disability: either physical or mental
- Age
- Genetic information
- Marital status
- Sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
- Medical condition
- Political activities or affiliations
-Military or veteran status
- Status as a victim of domestic violence, assault, or stalking
In order to successfully bring a discrimination claim forward, an individual must prove that their employer took a negative employment action against him or her that was at least partially motivated by discrimination.
What does discrimination look like? Well, sometimes it’ll be obvious and easy to prove through direct evidence (i.e. blatantly racist or sexist statements made by an employer or supervisor). Other times it’s not so obvious and manifests itself through a pattern of indirect actions. For example, you may find that your supervisor’s attitude towards you has changed after finding out that you’re part of a certain (protected) group, leading to sudden exclusion from meetings or events and an oddly negative performance review. Or, let’s say that your boss lets you go due to “lack of work” but you notice that two other employees were hired just before your termination – this could be a sign that an underhanded form of discrimination against you took place.
Other signs of discrimination in the workplace can include company policies that disporportionately affect certain workers, permitting discriminatory jokes in the workplace, reduced hours or pay only for workers who have a certain protected characteristic, and refusing to accommodate the religious or disability-related needs of certain workers.
Under California law, you have a limited time to file a lawsuit against your employer for employment discrimination violations. First, you must file a complaint with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) within one year from the date of the alleged act. After that, if you are issued a right-to-sue letter from the DFEH, you will have one year to file a lawsuit in civil court against the employer.
However, all cases vary, and depending on the circumstances and how your complaint is being handled, these statutes of limitations may be longer or shorter. Our Agemian Law Group attorneys will guide you through this whole process, but keep in mind that deadlines tend to be strict for these types of cases so the sooner we can help you, the better.
California law places no limits on the amount of damages that an employee may recover in a discrimination action – it all depends on the facts of the case, the extent of discrimination, whether the claimant was also a victim of harassment, and a variety of other factors.
Generally speaking, California law tends to favor the employee in determining damage awards, which can include:
- Compensatory Damages including any lost wages, back pay, front pay, and benefits an employee could reasonably have been expected to earn had the discrimination not occurred. In cases of discrimination, this may also include damages for emotional distress, mental suffering, anxiety, grief, and/or humiliation as a result of the discrimination.
- Punitive Damages which are designed to punish the defendant for additional damages that are not necessarily related to the economic loss the plaintiff has suffered. Punitive damages are usually awarded in cases where the employer is guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice and can also serve to deter the defendant from committing similar heinous acts in the future.
- Legal Fees including attorney fees, court costs, and expert witness fees. For certain cases, it’s possible that the employer will be required to cover these costs.
While many employment discrimination lawsuit settlements end up in the $40,000 to $50,000 range, a full 10% or more of these cases result in a $1 million+ settlement, making employment discrimination lawsuits one of the more high-stakes types of lawsuits that take place in California courts each year. Nothing makes the Agemian Law Group team happier than handing that life-changing 7-figure check to our clients.
Wondering what the potential settlement amount might look like in your particular circumstances? Give us a quick call, talk through the details of your situation in a confidential free consultation, and we’ll be able to ballpark what you might be looking at if your litigation is successful.
At Agemian Law Group, if we take your discrimination case, we’re confident enough to work it on a contingency basis. That means that we take 100% of our fees from the settlement you win at the end of the process. If we don’t win you a settlement, you don’t owe us a single dollar.
That’s not the case for all discrimination attorneys in Los Angeles -- some only work on an hourly basis, which can rack up massive fees and even keep justice out of reach for those who don’t have the means to afford it up-front. At Agemian Law Group, we believe that justice should be available to everyone, regardless of your current financial means, which is why we gladly work on contingency.
