There are a lot of issues tied up in here. I would call some lawyers that do employment discrimination and ask about it. 1) Lawyers don't usually get to call people they think have claims and ask to help. Something is either wrong or missing here. 2) They are supposed to watch deadlines for you unless they are pretty clear that they are not going to do that. The question is did you hire them. If you paid a fee the answer is probably yes unless they were clear that they were only doing a consultation or similar. 3) Because there are also state law claims in every discrimination case, it may not matter if you missed a deadline related to EEOC unless there is a good claim for punitive damages in the particular case. In sex harassment or other discrimination cases you can only get punitive damages in Washington State if you go to EEOC and file within 90 days of the right to sue, but all the other types of damages are available whether or not you do that. This is called "exhausting your administrative remedies" with EEOC. If it's a race or national origin discrimination case then you don't have to go to EEOC to get punitive damages anyway. Hope this helps. It's not a good sign that the lawyer missed any deadline, and it may make sense to talk to other lawyers about the situation, consider changing lawyers, or at a minimum try to take a more active role in your case.
Answered on Nov 01st, 2013 at 2:13 AM