Texas Wrongful Termination Legal Questions

Many employers have a "no call, no show" policy.  Such policy typically provides that the employer will fire an employee who does not show up for a scheduled shift and doesn't let someone at the cmopany know they won't be coming to work.When the hospital "gave [you] a few days off," it was incumbent on you to take that medical recommendation to your supervisor or HR department promptly.  The hospital is not allowed to communicate directly with your employer about your health care.  If you gave the medical recommendation to your employer prior to missing any shifts, you may have a claim for wrongful termination in retaliation for making a workers' compensation claim.  Normally, you would be entitled to TIBs (temporary income benefits) if your work-related injury caused you to miss more than seven days of work.  You should contact an attorney who handles both workers' compensation and employment law in or near the county where you live to help you address these issues with Tesla.... Read More

If you want an answer to this question, you are going to have to provide some more detail.  Are you an at-will employee or does the jurisdiction you work for have a civil service system?  Do you have any idea why your employer thinks you have a knee injury? Does your employer think you suffered the knee injury on the job or off the job?  How long ago were you fired?  How long had you been with this employer? Do you think the real reason for the termination was a mistaken belief that you had a knee injury or do you think the real reason is something else and if so, what?... Read More

Ask the company whether they will contest your unemployment. Some companies will not contest as part of the separation deal. You should also ask if they'll give you money in exchange for a non-disparagement and release of any claims you may have against them. If they will do such an agreement, you have the right to have an attorney review the agreement.... Read More

Probably none.  Unless there is a contract between the employer and employee or between the employer and a union of which the employee is a member, a Texas employer (and an employer in most other states) can fire an employee for any reason or no reason, including a mistaken, made up, or incorrect reason, as long as the reason is not illegal or a cover for an illegal reason, such as race, sex, age, religion, disability etc.... Read More

No way to know.  Your question is not specific enough about the nature of the matter.  Some lawyers work on a contingency fee, which means you pay nothing unelss you win.  But those folks are pretty selective about the cases they take on such fee basis.  It usually won't cost you anyting to visit with a contingency fee attorney, but you won't know until later whether they will take your case.  Contingency fee attorneys in the employment law area are pretty scarce.  Other lawyers charge by the hour.  In any of the major metropolitan areas of Texas, you should expect to pay between $250 and $350 and hour for a qualified experenced attorney.  Some legal problems can be addressed in a single one-hour session.  The cost of other matters, particularly those requring a lawsuit, often cannot be accurately predicted, as half of the lawyer's time will be spent reacting to the other side's activities which your lawyer cannot control or predict.... Read More

Retaliation for complaining about Sexual Harassment is itself a violation of the law, if the employer you work for has 15 or more employees.  Withing 180 days of the date you were let go, you should contact the EEOC or the Texas Workforce Commission - Civil Rights Division and file a complaint.  They may or may not provide you the relief you seek.  If not, you will have to seek a private attorney.  But that attorney cannot do anything for you in the court system, until after you file such a complaint.... Read More

Be sure to apply for unemployment if you have not already. You may not have a remedy with the company, but you can certainly try to go through their internal grievance process if they will allow it. Otherwise, you would need an analysis to determine whether you have any claims under Title VII or other laws. Do you think you were treated differently than others in your company? ... Read More

I'm glad you asked this question.  I hope others take time to read this answer. First, law firms are businesses not charitable organizations.  If you are truly poor, there are legal services agencies that can take your case, but their services are generally not available to the average working person.  Because law firms are in business, they must analyze each case they accept to determine whether or not they can make money on the matter or at least break even.  To the extent a lawyer chooses to take a case for free, on some reduced fee basis or on a contingent fee, he or she must also try to determine how much the case will cost him. In most wrongful termination cases, the client/employee has just lost his or her only or main source of income, therefor he or she is not typically in a position to pay an attorney by the hour and will need some kind of contingent fee (lawyer takes a percentage of any recovery).  Contingent fees are typically around 33% - 40%.  So if a lawyer is going to take a case on a contingent fee and going to recover his cost (a fully litigated case may cost up to $50,000 or more), the case would need to be worth approximately $150,000.00, unless the attorney has some reason to believe it will settle without a trial. The law does not favor the employee in these cases, making wrongful termination cases hard to win.  Under Texas law, unless an employee has a contract which limits the employer's discretion to fire the employee, the employee is "at-will" and may be fired for any reason or no reason but not an illegal reason (race, sex, age, religion, disability, for filing a workers' compensation claim, for refusing to commit a criminal act, etc.).  Except for avoiding a violation of law, employers have no obligation to provide warings, to give evaluations, to be fair, to even give an employee a reason for the termination.  If an employee is fired, he or she also has a duty to try to find another job.  If the employee does find another job, the income from the new job reduces the damages the employee can recover in any lawsuit over the firing from the earlier job. So the reason that experienced employment lawyers turn down most wrongful termination cases is because they are expensive,  are hard to win, the acutual damages may be low if the employee is able to find another job and because the employee usually needs the attorney to fund the case until there is a positive outcome.  Thus the case needs to be one with a likelihood of a positive outcome both in terms of liability and potential damages.  ... Read More

You may terminate your attorney by simply sending him a letter that states you no longer need his services. You did not indicate the date of the termination hearing, but it would probably be helpful if you had an attorney present during the hearing to assist you in the process and be a witness to the statements made about your work performance and the reasons for termination. You may also consider filing an EEOC complaint based on being fired as a result of your physical disability due to your hip replacement. ... Read More

You would think the answer to this question would be simple.  In the most general sense, if the statute of limitations on your claim is two years (usual for an injury claim but unusual for a wrongful termination claim) the time line runs two years after the date the bad act happened, regardless of any intervening contact or settlement negotiations.  There are a number of possible exceptions to this, but they are fact specific.  To answer the question with a little more information, an attorney would need to know: 1) What kind of case is this?  Were you injured? Were you terminated? 2) If you were terminated, why did your employer tell you it was firing you, even if the reason was untrue?  What do you think the real reason for the termination was? 3) If you were terminated, did your employer tell you on the last day you worked or did it give you some kind of advanced notice of an upcoming termination? 4) If you were injured, did the employer have a workers compensation insurance policy? Let me know and I will attempt to give you a better answer.  But if you are sure that the limitations period is two years and sure that it runs in the very near future, you need to get something filed before that date, rather than holding out hope that there is some possible extension of it.  ... Read More

The Constitution and your rights under its various amendments protects you against Government action.  It gives you no rights with respect to a private employer unless Congress or the State of Texas pass specific laws giving you such rights. There is no general right of free speech in a private workplace.  Moreover, in Texas, an employer can terminate or discipline and employee for any reason or no reason (but not a reason prohibited by statute or contract), even if it is not spelled out in a policy manual. The description of your issue does not reveal that the employer did anything illegal.  ... Read More

In Texas, an employer may fire an employee with or without notice for any reason or no reason.  This is called At-Will employment.  The only exceptions to this rule are: 1) the employee has a contract with the employer; 2) the reason for termination has been prohibited by statute eg race, sex, age, national origin, color, religion, disability, age, retaliation for making an OSHA, EEOC, FLSA or Texas Workers' Comp report or claim; 3) the termination was caused by the employee's refusal to commit a criminal act.  There is no fairness requirement in this rule. Under the facts you have provided above, I predict that you will have difficulty finding an attorney to take this case on any fee basis.  However, before you decide to walk away from the issue, call your nearest big-city bar association. Most will have a lawyer referral service, where you can find an employment attorney who will consult with you for a very minimal fee (Tarrant County is $50.00, I think).  That person can tell you with some certainty whether or not you have a case.    ... Read More

If your company has a human resources department, you need to contact them first. Explain your medical condition and request to have accomodations that will allow you to improve your performance at work. From there, be sure to document all of your interactions with your manager, particularly the one who gave you a poor review. Do your best at work, but it would be in your benefit to let your employer know about your condition and need for accomodations so that they may be less likely to terminate you. ... Read More

In Texas, employees can be terminated for any reason or no reason - but may not be terminated for illegal reasons. Illegal reasons include race, sex, age, national origin, color, religion, disability, complaining about any of the above, filing a workers compensation claim, refusing to commit a crime or in violation of a contract. If the real reason for the termination does not fit into any of these catagories, then the employer may legally fire an employee for that reason.  In sum, a mistaken reason is not an illegal reason and the employer does not break the law because his facts are wrong.  ... Read More

In Texas, employees may be fired (or demoted or transferred or assigned different hours or job duties) for any reason or no reason, except unlawful reasons (eg, age, sex, race, religion, disability, filing a workers compensation claim, refusing to commit a criminal act).  "Any reason" includes unfair reasons (I want my son-in-law to have your job.); Untrue or mistaken reasons (I think you have been stealing money from the Company); and arbitrary reasons ("I don't like the color of your shoes or I hate New York Yankees fans").  If the Lady Owner "just doesn't like you", that's enough reason to fire you.  Some less sophisticated employers don't understand the above and they think they have to have a reason to fire an employee (particularly if they plan to try to avoid paying unemployment).  So they try to get the employee to quit by making the employee's life unpleasant or by making up false accusations or false criticisms of the employee's work.  None of that is, by itself, illegal. You mention discrimination.  Discrimination and harassment are treated equally in the law.  Anytime an employer treats one employee differently from another, that is discrimination.  However, not all discrimination is illegal.  If the employer promotes Texas Rangers fans and demotes New York Yankees fans, he is discriminating, but not illegally.  If he gives his golf buddies a raise but does not do so for other employees, he is discriminating, but not illegally.  If, in the private employment context he screams at, harasses, and makes life hell for Republicans but is polite to Democrats that is OK.    But if he promotes the men and not the women or harasses the Methodists but not the Baptists, that is illegal discrimination/harassment. Now, with the above in mind, I put the question to you.  Why is she making your job hard, discriminating against you and harassing you?... Read More

Letting your employer fire you, as opposed to voluntarily resigning, better protects your rights to later assert a wrongful termination claim and to obtain unemployment benefits.  If you resign, you may be disqualified for unemployment and, if you later assert a wrongful termination claim, you will be faced with the additional burden of proving that either you would have been fired anyway or in certain types of harassment claims, that no reasonable person would have remained in that position.... Read More

The short answer to your question is "Yes" unless you have some reason to believe that the "sales quota" issue is not the real reason you were fired.  Texas is an at-will employment state.  Thus it is OK for an employer to treat two similar employees differently unless the reason for the different treatment is something like race, sex, age, color, national origin, disability or religion.  Otherwise, the law does not require an employer to be fair. Good luck.  ... Read More

It depends.  You use the word "due".  If an employee has done all that was required, usually pursuant to a policy, prior practice or a contract, to be entitled to receive the bonus, then the employer may owe that bonus even if the employee was fired.  On the other hand if the bonus was a discretionary bonus, then the employer is under no obligation to pay it or to keep employees around to receive it.  In sum, the "it depends" turns on whether you have a written or otherwise provable right to the bonus.  Given the size of this claim, it may be worth your while to buy an hour or two of an attorney's time and provide him or her with any documents or a description of any past practices regarding similar bonuses.  In order to get the most bang for your attorney dollar, seek out an attorney who is Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law that represents employees.  The yellow pages of a major metropolitan area should provide some listings of board certified attorneys.  Look them up on line before calling.  Good luck.... Read More