Practice Areas
Whether you are a worker or an applicant, you are protected from being treated differently because of certain characteristics. Federal and state laws have listed those characteristics as race, color, national origin, religion, gender, and sexual orientation and gender identity. These groups are known in the law as “protected classes.”
Race
You are entitled to be who you are at your place of employment. The law recognizes both direct and indirect forms of discrimination based on race. These forms are known as “disparate treatment” and “disparate impact.” Examples of disparate treatment can take the form of racist slurs, segregated facilities, or refusing to hire someone because of a foreign name. Even employment decisions based on stereotypes associated with a protected class can be unlawful.
Employers can also discriminate indirectly by establishing policies or practices that disproportionately impact a protected class. These policies do not have to be intentionally discriminatory, so long as it disproportionately affects certain groups of people. Examples of these policies can often be dress codes that are associated with a racial group, or credit screenings that tend to exclude racial groups.
Receiving Compensation for Discrimination
If you suffered discrimination based on your race, color, religion, or national origin, you may be entitled to:
- Back pay
- Front pay
- Other compensatory damages
- Reinstatement
- Punitive damages
- Attorney’s fees
- “Make Whole Relief,” which seeks to retore you to the position you would have been in had the discrimination never occurred.
Damages are heavily dependent on what losses could be proved or reasonably predicted. It is important to preserve evidence of pay or other materials relevant to lost income or benefits because of a discriminatory act. Typically, higher punitive damages are awarded to victims of more egregious actions. We can help walk you through your rights.
Private employees have 180 days to file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. Federal workers have 45 days to file a charge.
Gender Discrimination
Employers cannot lawfully treat you differently because of your gender. Federal and state laws protect you from discrimination based on your gender, including gender identity and sexual orientation. Gender and sexual orientation discrimination are forbidden with any aspect of employment, including hiring, work conditions, pay and benefits, training, promotions, and termination.
Like race, gender and sexual orientation discrimination can take the form of disparate treatment, or disparate impact, meaning it could be either direct or indirect. Disparate impact discrimination often looks like physical tests or height requirements that disproportionately excludes women. It could also be excluding women from informal groups that act effectively as pipelines for promotions. Disparate treatment could include comments on attire, spreading of sexual rumors, or even decisions based upon gender-based stereotypes. For example, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that denying a woman a promotion because her appearance did not conform with the employer’s expectations of “feminine” was unlawfully discriminatory.
While workplace protections against gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination are nascent, the law is clear that this form of discrimination is illegal. The Supreme Court recently held that an employer cannot fire an employee based upon being gay or transgender.
Receiving Compensation for Discrimination
If you suffered discrimination based on your gender, you may be entitled to:
- Back pay
- Front pay
- Other compensatory damages
- Reinstatement
- Punitive damages
- Attorney’s fees
- “Make Whole Relief,” which seeks to retore you to the position you would have been in had the discrimination never occurred.
Damages are heavily dependent on what losses could be proved or reasonably predicted. It is important to preserve evidence of pay or other materials relevant to lost income or benefits because of a discriminatory act. Typically, higher punitive damages are awarded to victims of more egregious actions. We can help walk you through your rights.
Private employees have 180 days to file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. Federal workers have 45 days to file a charge.
Hostile Work Environment is a form of workplace harassment against a protected class. Harassment is more than rude annoyances and unpleasant work experiences. The EEOC defines this type of harassment as
unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy), national origin, older age (beginning at age 40), disability, or genetic information (including family medical history). Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.
Essentially, you are unlawfully harassed when someone at work targets you because of your protected class and you suffer personally and objectively offensive conduct that is so severe or consistent that it changes your work conditions. The conduct would be deemed severe if a reasonable person would consider it hostile or abusive. Threats, intimidation, and vile sexual discussions often meet this standard. The conduct will be considered pervasive if it happens frequently over a long period of time, even if it is less serious.
Compensation for Hostile Work Environment
Some workers wish to remain in their roles while seeking redress from the toxic environment. Often, workers elect not to return to a hostile workplace, but still seek compensation for the wrong they’ve suffered. We’re here to discuss your options with you. If you suffered from a hostile work environment, you may be entitled to:
- Back pay
- Front pay
- Other compensatory damages
- Reinstatement
- Punitive damages
- Attorney’s fees
- “Make Whole Relief,” which seeks to retore you to the position you would have been in had the discrimination never occurred.
Damages are heavily dependent on what losses could be proved or reasonably predicted. It is important to preserve evidence of pay or other materials relevant to lost income or benefits because of a discriminatory act. Typically, higher punitive damages are awarded to victims of more egregious actions. We can help walk you through your rights.
Private employees have 180 days to file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. Federal workers have 45 days to file a charge.
Most employment is considered at-will. This means that employers have the latitude to fire employees for any lawful reason or no reason at all. The law recognizes a few exceptions to at-will employment.
Contractual Violations
You may be governed by either a contract with your employer or a collective bargaining agreement between your employer and your union. These contracts often contain grounds that your employer may use to terminate you, remedial steps that must be followed before termination, and a termination process such as a notice and hearing. If a termination violated a term in the contract, a breach has occurred and you could be entitled to damages.
Statutory Exceptions
Another exception to at-will employment is if the termination violates existing local, state, or federal laws. For example, an employer who terminates a woman because of a pregnancy is in violation of The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and is therefore unlawful.
Public Policy
Finally, employment laws protect workers against terminations that would violate public policy. Public policy protects workers who refuse to engage in illegal activities or exercise a duty under public obligation, such as jury duty, or in some cases, reporting a crime.
Federal laws protect employees who complain about their employer’s unlawful acts, including waste, fraud, and abuse. It is unlawful for your employer to retaliate against you if you complain about these unlawful acts. You are also protected if you refuse orders that would violate laws, rules, or regulations.
You may be familiar with contracts as you would see them nearly daily in some form. People agree to a contract when they purchase a cup of coffee, when they sign up for a new phone service, or even when they commit to certain jobs. But most people do not understand what is necessary for an enforceable contract to be formed, or the ramifications for breaching it.
That is why an experienced attorney can help. Virtue Law Group can draft agreements, review and advise on current contracts, and help problem solve or litigate in the event of a violation of a contract.
Losing a case at trial can be financially and emotionally distressing. However, if the lower court or agency misinterpreted law, clearly erred in its fact finding, or abused its discretion, you have a right to appeal. But do not wait too late.
Winning an appellate case often depends on what was done at the lower court to prepare. Some issues must be raised for the lower court to decide so that they become ripe for appeal. Additionally, emergency appeals, and interlocutory orders may be necessary to protect client interests. Virtue Law Group can work with counsel at the trial level to predict and preserve these issues to be best positioned if there is a need to appeal the decision.
You have 30 days to begin the appellate process once a decision has been made at the trial court disposing of the case. Virtue Law Group can represent you from the notice of appeal, to filing appellate briefs, and arguing the case before the Court.
