To Sue For Discrimination You Must Belong To A ”Protected Class”

Perhaps no issue causes greater difficulties in employment law than the problem of discrimination. Unlike discrimination as understood by the layperson and in the everyday nonlegal world, the legally actionable category of illegal ‘discrimination’ constitutes a technical and narrow area of the law. So far as the law is concerned, very few acts of regular discrimination count as the type of legal discrimination for which you can sue an employer.

What Qualifies As A Protected Class?

You can sue an employer if they discriminate against you because of your status as a member of what is called a “protected class” such as:

  • Race
  • Color
  • Religion
  • National origin
  • Sex
  • Disability
  • Age (over 40)
  • Creed
  • Sexual orientation
  • Marital status
  • Ancestry
  • Familial status

If you are not a member of one a ‘protected class,’ then you cannot sue for officially defined legal discrimination. To help further clarify these issues, we provide a discrimination questionnaire for your review.

There is also a causal requirement: if you are discriminated against and you are a member of a protected class, then the discrimination against you must have been based on your membership in the protected class. Simply being discriminated against plus being a member of a protected class is insufficient to sustain an official legal discrimination claim.

Contact A Denver Employment Discrimination Attorney

If you have been discriminated against because you are a member of a protected class, please call our Colorado firm at 303.578.2833 to discuss your questions. You can also schedule an initial consultation with our firm by contacting us online.