Meet the Editors. Two points might help explain these results: Many employees believe that wrongful termination is the same as being fired unfairly. That's not necessarily true. In order to have a legitimate claim for wrongful termination, you must have been fired for an illegal reason , including discrimination or harassment based on a protected characteristic like ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, disability, or age over Many of our readers described reasons for their termination that aren't illegal, such as favoritism, run-of-the-mill bullying not based on a protected characteristic , personality conflicts, general unfairness, or posting something on social media that the boss didn't like.
In those cases, wrongful termination claims probably wouldn't get far. Those who participated in our survey had shared their information with us after coming to our websites to look for a lawyer and find out more about wrongful termination.
Employees with the strongest cases and the highest wage losses or other damages which can lead to higher settlements or awards may not have taken part in the survey because they were able to quickly find and hire an attorney elsewhere.
How Lawyers Affect Outcomes in Wrongful Termination Claims Having the help of an attorney more than doubled our readers' chances of getting a successful outcome in their wrongful termination claims. Wrongful termination lawyers charge for their services in one of three different ways: Contingency fees. Under this arrangement, the attorney receives a percentage of settlement or award.
If you don't get any compensation, neither does your lawyer. Hourly fees. Employment lawyers may charge by the hour, at rates that vary widely depending on the attorney's experience and location. This arrangement is much less common, since most fired employees can't afford it.
Combination fees. Your lawyer might ask you to pay a modest retainer fee at the start, with an agreement that you'll also pay a percentage of any settlement or award. Other Factors That Affect Outcomes While lawyers had the biggest impact on both the amount of compensation and the likelihood of getting anything, our survey pointed to several other factors that affected the outcomes of readers' wrongful termination claims, including: Negotiating settlement offers.
It's not a surprise that when readers negotiated for a better deal after receiving a settlement offer, the strategy usually paid off. What may be surprising is that one in five readers simply accepted the first offer. Filing a lawsuit. Few wrongful termination claims actually go to trial, but filing a lawsuit puts an employee in a stronger negotiating position by starting the formal discovery process getting evidence through depositions and requests for documents.
Employer size. Some laws can have a specific statute of limitations. This is due to the fact that settlements are considered the best option for both parties because civil trials have the potential to be unpredictable. For a company, they often prefer to settle these cases outside of court because even if they are able to successfully defend themselves, it is still possible for wrongdoing and potentially damaging information about the company to be disclosed during a trial.
The monetary value of wrongful termination is based on several factors which are used to determine how much loss was suffered as a result of the firing.
The first of these is wage loss. This is the amount of wages that you lost from the date of termination until the present. As the plaintiff, you have the duty to mitigate these damages through measures such as seeking another job. Any benefits you receive from this new job are deducted from the past wage total. This means that if you are able to find another job relatively quickly after your wrongful termination, you may not receive as much compensation as you may be hoping for in lost wages.
If you have been unable to find work by the time of the trial or settlement, it is possible for future wage loss to be included. The second factor to consider is the loss of benefits. This could include situations such as you being forced to fund your own health insurance after termination. Should this occur, your employer may be liable to pay back that out of pocket expense.
After all, a trial could go both ways, as they are quite unpredictable which is the risk each party has to assume when going to court. Can I get larger compensation through a court verdict? The average wrongful termination settlement varies from one case to another and depends on whether you are legally represented by a lawyer or not. In addition to the above-mentioned factors, the average case value of a wrongful termination case also depends on:.
Do keep in mind, however, those federal laws in the U. However, punitive damages are not awarded in every case — wrongful termination cases that are not awarded punitive damages can still result in major jury verdict amounts.
As we mentioned above, wrongful termination claims must be handled on a case-by-case basis. To put a wrongful termination settlement calculator online would inevitably give unreliable numbers. At The Rager Law Firm , we want to discuss your case with you and analyze the facts before trying to determine what the wrongful termination case settlement amount may be.
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