Culver City Wrongful Termination

Located in Los Angeles County, Culver City had an estimated population of 39,185 in 2019. The first film studio in Culver City was built in 1918. Since then, the city has been home to numerous motion pictures and television production studios. Famous movies produced on the Culver City studio lots include Gone with the Wind, E.T., and The Wizard of Oz. The city's streets have been used as settings for television and film. Culver City employers must abide by federal, state, and local laws. You should not lose your job due to an employer’s failure to abide by a law, your employment contract, or public policy. Call the Calderone Law firm to speak with a Culver City wrongful termination lawyer. We can review whether you have grounds to sue for damages.

Employment is at-will in California. This means an employer may terminate you for no reason or any reason, so long as the reason is not illegal. The employer cannot terminate you in violation of your legal rights, whether these rights arise under federal or state statute, your employment contract, or public policy.

Only an employee can file a lawsuit for wrongful termination. Independent contractors cannot file for wrongful termination. However, some employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors. To determine whether workers are employees or independent contractors, the court will consider the amount of control the employer exercises over the way workers perform their job. The more control and direction exercised by the employer, the more likely the court will consider the worker to be an employee. If you would like to know whether you are an employee entitled to pursue damages for wrongful termination, you should talk to a wrongful termination lawyer in Culver City.

Wrongful termination lawsuits may include allegations of discrimination, failure to address workplace harassment properly, termination in violation of an express or implied contract, termination for whistleblowing, termination as retaliation for exercising your rights under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), WARN Act violations, or termination for filing a workers’ compensation claim. For example, California’s FEHA prohibits employment discrimination and workplace harassment based on certain protected characteristics, such as race, gender, religion, or disability. So, if an employer terminated an employee when the employee requested a reasonable accommodation for a physical disability, the employee may have a wrongful termination claim. For another example, if an employer terminated an employee for reporting a worker safety violation to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the employee may have a wrongful termination claim.

In California, you may sue your employer for constructive discharge if your employer made working conditions so unbearable you had no choice but to resign. A Culver City wrongful termination attorney can evaluate whether your employer purposefully allowed working conditions to become so unbearable a reasonable employer would anticipate a reasonable employee would quit as a result of them.

You may have a constructive discharge claim if you had an express contract or oral contract with your employer, and your employer made the situation at work intolerable, knowing that explicitly firing you would violate your contract. It takes extremely severe circumstances for a court to find constructive discharge. Therefore, it would be wise to consult an attorney before you leave your employment to see whether there are other options and to make sure that your situation would be serious enough to be considered intolerable by the court.

If you can establish that an employer wrongful terminated you, you may be able to recover for lost income, lost benefits, emotional distress, and attorney’s fees. In some cases, punitive damages may be available and are meant to punish the defendant and deter future similar wrongdoing. They will only be awarded if you were wrongfully terminated by an employer that the court determines acted with malice, fraud, or oppression.

Losing your job because you wouldn’t break the law or because of your identity can be devastating. You may be impacted both economically and emotionally. If you were wrongfully terminated, you should talk to our experienced wrongful termination attorney in Culver City. At the Calderone Law Firm, we may be able to counsel and represent you. Please call our firm at (424) 348-8290 or complete our online form.