Cincinnati Wrongful Termination Attorneys 

What is an Illegal Reason For Termination?

Age

There are many “statuses” that are protected under the law from discrimination in the workplace. Your age is one of these protected statuses and cannot be used against you as grounds for termination.

Race

Black, white, red, yellow, purple, blue—it doesn’t matter; if you are fired because of the color of your skin, you have been wronged. You may have a claim for wrongful termination and should contact an employment attorney right away.

National origin

You cannot be fired because of where you come from. If you believe that your employer fired you because he or she was, for whatever reason, opposed to your place of origin, you may have a wrongful termination claim.

Pregnancy

Having a baby is a natural thing, and you should not be punished for it. If you are eligible for an extended leave under the FMLA, you are legally granted up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-secured leave when you have a baby. If you have been fired for taking a leave that is rightfully yours, you have been wrongfully terminated. Even if your company does not qualify for the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, you cannot be let go for a reason that relates to your pregnancy. You deserve the comfort of knowing that you will be able to provide for your little one once he or she enters the world. Don’t let your employer deprive you of this security; contact an employment lawyer right away to find out if you should sue your employer.

Gender

Oftentimes in the workforce, women are treated differently than men, but this is not always the case; sometimes, it is the other way around. A person’s gender should not get in the way of his or her job, and if it does, it may be worth pursuing legally.

Disability

Just because you have a disability does not mean that you are incompetent or unable to do your job. Your employer cannot fire you on the basis of a disability.

Complaining about being the victim of illegal discrimination

Your employer has a responsibility to keep your workplace free of hostility, and you have a right to report any hostile activity. In other words, if you complained about racial or sexual harassment—or any other kind of discrimination—in your office and then found yourself suddenly fired, you may have been wrongfully terminated for speaking out when you were legally able to do so. You should seek legal help.

How Do You Prove that Your Employer Had an Illegal Motive?

This is where wrongful termination cases get particularly tricky. How do you prove that your employer had an illegal motive for firing you? Most employers are well aware of what they can and cannot do, and they will go to whatever end to make sure that they are covered, should someone point the finger back at them. In other words, an employer will almost never admit to having acted with an illegal motive. This is where it takes a competent wrongful termination lawyer to gather the appropriate evidence and prove that you were in fact fired for an illegal reason.

Let’s say, for instance, that you have been working at Fifth Third Bank for several years now. You are by far the oldest person on your team. Recently, your direct manager took a job elsewhere. Your new manager is friendly but has never seemed to take much of a liking to you. One day, you are fired from your job for missing an important meeting—something that you rarely do but couldn’t avoid due to a personal situation. This reason in and of itself, while not a very fair or strong one, is legal.

However, something just doesn’t seem right to you. When you examine the situation more closely, you remember that many of your colleagues who are on your team have missed important meetings before, without severe punishment. In a situation like this, you may have a wrongful termination claim on the grounds of age discrimination. We would advise this individual to seek legal counsel.

A Company Must Follow Its Own Policies

It goes without saying that a company is expected to hold to its own policies, just as it expects its employees to do. Let’s say, for instance, that your employer fired you, saying that you had sexually harassed other employees. Most companies’ sexual harassment policy requires the employer to conduct an investigation anytime someone complains of such inappropriate behavior. If your employer fired you without properly investigating the situation first, you may have a claim for wrongful termination.

There are also various public policies that protect you from being fired. For example, you cannot be fired for serving jury duty, for reporting illegal conduct (conduct that doesn’t necessarily affect you personally), or for reporting environmental hazards to the EPA.

If you believe that you have been illegally fired, it is critical that you act quickly. In some cases, there is a time limit, called a statute of limitations, for you to file your claim. Sometimes, the statute of limitations is as short as three months. This means that if you wait to file your claim after the three months is up, the courts may not consider your case at all. Don’t let this happen to you. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Get the help that you deserve now by calling the dedicated lawyers at Robert A. Klingler Co., L.P.A. in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. For many years, we have represented Ohio and Kentucky residents through employment disputes. Contact us to see how we can help you.

What To Do If You Have Been Wrongfully Discharged

When an employee contacts us after or just before being fired, one of the first questions we ask is whether the termination is based on conduct or characteristics that are protected under the law, such as age, race, national origin, pregnancy, gender, and other statuses that have been protected from the employment-at-will doctrine by Congress and state legislatures.

While the protected classes of persons covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), and similar state statutes make up a large portion of protected employees, other employees may be protected from discharge or adverse employer actions depending on the circumstances. Various public policies protect employees from wrongful termination in Cincinnati for engaging in certain protected conduct. An employee may not be fired for serving jury duty, for example, or in many other cases where a clear public policy would be threatened if employees could be discharged for engaging in the specific conduct. Retaliatory discharge for reporting a company’s illegal conduct may be prohibited by public policy and by specific whistleblower statutes. Reporting abuse in a nursing home or medical facility, or reporting environmental hazards to the EPA, may give rise to protection for employees. 

However, you must be very careful not to assume that the conduct you are considering engaging in, or have already engaged in, is protected under the law. Many employees wrongly assume they cannot be fired for complaining about certain conduct, or reporting certain conduct to higher management. The fact is, the conduct protected under the law is rather narrow, and it is not usually obvious to an employee whether or not the specific conduct at issue will be protected by Ohio or federal courts.

In some situations, it is crucial that an employee follow precise reporting requirements in order to protect against being terminated for reporting an employer’s wrongful conduct. For example, if you report certain illegal conduct to a certain government agency, your reporting might be protected, whereas if you report the same conduct to your supervisor, or to someone else, you may not be protected; you may even be fired for making such a report. The only way to know for sure and to adequately protect yourself is to contact a knowledgeable lawyer who is well-versed in wrongful termination in Cincinnati about your specific circumstances.

If you believe you may have been wrongfully terminated, you may contact our law firm to discuss your options with an experienced lawyer. We can tell you if you have been illegally terminated, and help you obtain a just resolution of your situation.

Contact our office today: (513) 650-6270.