Fighting Back Against Unfair Consequences
Issues of employer retaliation populate today’s news stories. Employees generally know that they have rights in some of these situations, but they do not understand which situations qualify for these rights. The popular knowledge on this subject is hazy, but the lawyers at The Litigation Boutique LLC understand these rules and how they apply in different circumstances.
Wrongful Termination Attorney
As with lawsuits for legally defined ‘discrimination,’ lawsuits for legally defined ‘retaliation’ follow very limited rules. For your lawsuit to qualify as a legally recognized retaliation claim, you must meet certain specific requirements. Simply being treated poorly by an employer in retaliation for something does not qualify by itself for an official retaliation lawsuit, barring other facts.
Building A Retaliation Case
First, in order to have a claim for legally defined retaliation, you must have participated in what is called a ‘protected activity’ as that phrase is defined by law. An activity qualifies as a protected activity if you participated in good faith in a complaint against the employer for legally defined discrimination. An activity can also qualify as a legally defined protected activity if you opposed a practice that in good faith you believed to be discriminatory, and you complained to the decision-maker who held the power to take any ‘adverse employment action’ (discussed below) against you.
Second, your participation in this protected activity must be the employer’s reason for taking a legally defined adverse employment action against you. An adverse employment action must be more than just a decision by an employer that negatively affects you. An officially defined adverse employment action must cause a change to your employment status itself such as being fired, transferred, demoted, receiving an official negative write-up firings or performance review. In other words, for an employer’s action to qualify as an adverse employment action, it must directly or indirectly affect your financial well-being or bring your employment closer to termination.
For further clarification, we also provide a retaliation questionnaire for your review.
Contact A Denver Employer Retaliation Attorney
To discuss your workplace retaliation legal questions with a Colorado lawyer from our firm, please call us at 303.578.2833. You can also contact us online to schedule your initial confidential discussion.