5 Wrongful Termination Examples in California
In California, there are all kinds of jobs you can pursue. If you find a career path that works for you, you might stay with the same company for many years. You may take pride in your work and hope that what you do helps the company succeed.
Remember, though, the company for which you work needs to follow all laws regarding your employment. If they fire you wrongfully, you have every legal right to sue them for that. There are certain lawyers that love these kinds of lawsuits, and you might need one on your side if something like
this happens.
However, you should first know the kinds of wrongful firings that can lead to lawsuits. We’ll talk about some of them right now.
Public Policy Violation Firings
At the top of the list of wrongful terminations in California would be firing someone because they serve jury duty or refuse to commit an illegal act. It’s not likely that a company would ever fire you because you serve jury duty, but it does happen occasionally.
Your company might also ask you to do something illegal for them, like falsifying documents. You have no obligation to ever do something like that. If they fire you for that reason, you can certainly fight back.
Firings Without Cause
In most jobs, a general understanding exists that the employer will only terminate you if you do something wrong. They are not able to fire you for no expressed reason.
It can be a little tricky to prove that a company fired you for no reason on your part, though. If they admit they fired you for no reason, they leave themselves wide open for a potential lawsuit.
What’s more likely in these situations is that your boss will come up with some excuse as to why they fired you, even though you know perfectly well their reason is not valid. You may be able to sue them, leaving it up to them to prove you did the incorrect thing that they claim.
Creating a Hostile Work Environment
If an employer creates a hostile work environment, they might get you to quit. In this instance, your employer is not literally firing you. However, their actions force you to leave the company, which essentially amounts to the same thing.
Creating a hostile work environment that gets bad enough that you feel you have no choice but to quit is illegal. You can definitely hire a lawyer and sue the company if this happens. The hard part will probably be establishing that the company created this toxic environment on purpose.
The more documentation you have that can prove this assertion, the more likely you are to win your lawsuit. Any physical evidence will help you in this circumstance.
Worker’s Compensation Firing
You might have a situation where you need to file for worker’s compensation because of something that happened. Your job might not like the fact that you did this. It’s your legal right to do it, though.
If they decide to fire you because you filed for worker’s compensation, that should be an open and shut legal case that you can win. Again, though, a situation might arise where the company comes up with other reasons why they fired you, rather than admitting they did it because you filed for worker’s comp.
Political View or Free Speech Firing
Your employer cannot fire you because you said something that the courts view as free speech that the Constitution protects. They also cannot fire you because you have certain political beliefs.
This can get a little tricky, though. You might post on social media what you think politically, for instance, and your job cannot fire you for that. The court system would consider that protected free speech.
You can’t talk about politics at work within hearing distance of a customer, though. You need to leave that kind of talk at home. If your superiors tell you that you can’t speak about that sort of thing in front of customers, and you continue doing it anyway, they might be able to fire you legally because you’re losing the business customers and revenue.
Many other ways exist that your company can terminate your employment wrongfully. If they do, you should certainly seek legal action against them. Doing so can result in your getting a significant settlement in some cases, and you can use that money to pay for your essentials, like rent and bills.
