Wrongful Termination Legal Questions

North Carolina is an employment-at-will state which means you can be terminated at any time for any reason.  You can only file a wrongful termination lawsuit in North Carolina if you allege that you were terminated due to unlawful discrimination or unlawful retaliation. I see nothing in these facts that suggest an unlawful motive, but perhaps there are other facts that you did not cover. You should consult with an experienced employment attorney as soon as possible if you wish to pursue this matter.... Read More

I am not a criminal attorney so I cannot answer the question about larceny.  As for the termination, you can be fired at any time for any reason.  You can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason or no reason at all. You can only file a legal claim if the employer terminated you due to unlawful discrimination or unlawful retaliation. This does not seem to fall in either.... Read More

You can be fired for any reason in North Carolina. If you can show that you had a disability covered by the American's with Disabilities Act, it might be possible to show unlawful discrimination or failure to accommodate a disability.  These "nodding off" cases are common and it will be tough to claim disability discrimination in this case.  Still, if you want to pursue it, you should consult with an experienced employment attorney.... Read More

In North Carolina, personnel files are property of the employer and the employer does not have to give an employee access to the files if it so chooses.  There is no action you can take for the company or its witnesses lying in an unemployment appeals hearing. Additionally, if the false accusation was made as part of an unemployment claim, there is a specific law that prohibits such accusations from being the basis of a lawsuit. To file a wrongful firing claim in this state, you must have evidence that the employer terminated you due to unlawful discrimination (race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability or age 40 or older) or unlawful retaliation (fired for engaging in one of a handful of "protected activities"). All other forms of discrimination or basis for retaliation are completely lawful.... Read More

Severance agreements are a matter of pure contract, apart from a few required terms (reading and revocation periods under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, for example).  That means if the agreement doesn’t have a deadline for you to sign it, you can accept it at any time until the employer withdraws it, which they can do at any time by notifying you of that.  The offer would eventually expire after a “reasonable” period of time, which a judge or jury would probably have to determine under Virginia law.Under the ADEA, the employer must give you at least 21 or 45 days, depending on the circumstances, to consider the agreement.  Even if the severance agreement requires you to sign within 21 days, the employer can always extend the deadline.... Read More

The statute itself states that actions are to be brought in the Circuit Court.  It goes on to say that you can make a claim for "actual damages" - that means the back pay that you are out due to the unlawful discharge.  Because the statute also allows for attorneys fees there is a very good chance you could get an attorney to handle this matter for you on a contingency basis, if you have a good case. This answer is given in accordance with the laws of Virginia and may not be applicable in any other state.  It should not be construed as legal advice, as that would require a more thorough analysis of all of the facts involved in a specific case.  If you need further information or assistance, please feel free to contact my office for a consultation. Case results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case.... Read More

Unless you are being discriminated against on the basis of age, race, sex, disability, national origin, religion, etc, you don't have a claim simply because your employer terminated you for a wrong bases. As an at will employment state, an employer can terminate you for any reason or no reason at all. It can't terminate employees for unlawful reasons. Matthew JP Coffman... Read More

It depends.  Based upon what you said in your question, you may have a sexual harassment case.  For example, if you cut off the relationship with your Manager and he/she terminated you because of that, then you might have a case based upon a "quid pro quo" theory of liability.  I would need more information about the nature of the relationship.  Also, whether it was the manager who made the decision to fire you.  In my experience, these can be tricky cases because sexual harassment is only harassment if the attention was unwelcome.... Read More

Whether you were terminated for just cause or whether you were terminated for an unlawful reason is a different analysis. From the information you provided, it does not sound like you have a case. Unless you were discriminated against and terminated because of your age, race, sex, disability, pregnancy, national origin, etc, you likely do not have a case.... Read More

There are a multitude of issues which you have raised in your question. As far as keeping your job, Nevada is an at-will employment state where your employer can dismiss you for no reason at all, so long as it is not a prohibited reason. "Since employees in Nevada are presumed to be at-will, an employer can dismiss an at-will employee with or without cause, so long as the dismissal does not offend this state's public policy. State of Nevada v. Dist. Ct. (Anzalone), 118 Nev. 140, 151, 42 P.3d 233, 240 (2002)." While there are limited exceptions to the at-will employment doctrine, the Nevada Supreme Court has made clear that these exceptions are “severely limited to those rare and exceptional cases where the employer's conduct violates strong and compelling public policy.” Sands Regent v. Valgardson, 105 Nev. 436, 440, 777 P.2d 898, 900 (1989). Based on the facts as presented, this appears to be a lawful termination. As far as unemployment eligibility, any individual out of work through no fault of their own may be eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits so long as minimum qualifications are met. For a part-time employee, the issue will be whether the employee has sufficient earnings within the base period for covered employers to qualify. In Nevada, a person must have earned at least $400 in one quarter of the base period and have total base period earnings of not less than 1.5 times the earnings in the highest quarter. In the alternative, an employee must have wages in at least three of the four preceding base period quarters used to calculate eligibility.... Read More

If you worked for an employer covered by the Family Medical Leave laws and you qualify for protection, then you may have a claim under Federal or Wisconsin law. Generally, a covered employer is one that has 50 or more employees. A covered employee is one that has worked for the employer for 1 year or more and has worked at least 1,000 hours in the past 52 weeks (Wisconsin law) or 1,250 hours in the past 12 months (Federal law). If these requirements are met for coverage, then the employer may have had a legal obligation to permit you to care for your daughter. Under Wisconsin law, you must file a complaint with the Equal Rights Division, Department of Workforce Development, within 30 days of the termination. Federal law requires you to file a complaint in court within 2 years, generally, but you have 3 years if the violation was willful. Don't delay in contacting the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division to file a complaint. The ERD will conduct an investigation and make an initial determination on whether you are covered by the Wisconsin law--not the Federal law. We have more information on Family Medical Leave and how to file a complaint with the ERD on our website at http://www.celcwi.com/medical_leave.html.... Read More