Orlando Wrongful Termination Lawyer
Under most circumstances, your employer can fire you for any reason. And when they do, they do not have to provide an explanation for why they terminated your employment. This is known as at-will employment. But there are exceptions to at at-will employment. An employer cannot use termination to discriminate or retaliate against an employee. When one does, the employee has the right to file a wrongful termination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Consult with our highly experienced and skilled Orlando wrongful termination lawyers at DSK Law, who are ready assist you with your case.
What is a Wrongful Termination?
Any termination performed for a discriminatory reason is a wrongful termination. This includes firing an employee because of his or her religious beliefs, terminating him or her for seeking gender reassignment surgery, or firing an employee after he or she comes out of the closet. Although gender identity and sexual orientation are not protected classes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, they are in Orlando, Florida. Additionally, it is possible to successfully take action after acts of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination by citing that they are acts of sex-based discrimination under Title VII.
Retaliation is an act taken against an employee to punish him or her for an action he or she had the right to take. For example, firing an employee after she files a sexual harassment lawsuit is a wrongful termination, as is terminating an employee for joining a labor union or acting as a whistleblower.
Determining Whether your Employer had a Valid Reason to Fire You
Very few employers will come right out and tell an employee that he or she is being fired as an act of retaliation or for a discriminatory reason. If you feel you are facing a wrongful termination, you and your lawyer will need to provide sufficient evidence to support your claim.
Look at the circumstances surrounding your termination. Was there an event prior to the termination, that significantly connected to it, that you feel was the basis for the firing? Perhaps there were discussions about how your age or gender rendered you incapable of performing the job or you were subjected to persistent harassment before being let go. Did you report the company for its unethical or illegal actions to an industry regulatory board or local authorities? Look not just at the circumstances that led to your termination, but what your employer did afterward. Were you replaced by somebody significantly younger than you or somebody more similar to the company’s owners, like somebody of their race or cultural background? In order to recover compensation for your wrongful termination-related damages, you must sufficiently prove that you were a victim of discrimination or retaliation.
Work with an Experienced Orlando Employment Lawyer
Not every termination is a legal one. When you feel you were unjustly, illegally terminated from a job, you can work with an experienced employment lawyer to explore the issue and potentially recover monetary compensation for the damages you suffered as a result. Contact our team at DSK Law today to set up your initial consultation with us.