Beverly Hills · All of California
Workplace discrimination and harassment lawyer in Los Angeles
People rarely call me the first time something happens. They call after months of it, usually when something finally tipped over, and the first thing they say is some version of "I don't know if this counts."
It often does. California's Fair Employment and Housing Act covers more ground than most employees realize, and it protects you whether or not you ever filed a formal complaint about it.
Free, and no obligation.
- Freefirst consultation
- No feeunless you win
- You speak to menot an intake line
- Cal. Bar 287341admitted 2012
What the law protects
FEHA makes it unlawful to treat you worse at work because of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age over 40, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, military or veteran status.
"Worse" covers more than being fired. Not being promoted, being moved to a worse shift, having work taken off you, being written up for something others do freely, being left out of the things the job requires you to be part of.
It also makes it unlawful to punish you for complaining about any of it, or for supporting somebody else who did. That part matters, because retaliation is often easier to prove than the thing that was complained about, and it stands on its own even if the original complaint turns out to be wrong.
Harassment is a different test
Discrimination is about decisions. Harassment is about conduct, and the legal question is whether it was severe or pervasive enough to change the conditions you worked under.
A single serious incident can meet that. So can a steady drip of smaller things over months, which is the version I see more often and the one people most often talk themselves out of.
Since 2019 California has said in statute that a single incident can be enough, that conduct doesn't have to be motivated by desire to count, and that the standard isn't whether a reasonable person would simply put up with it. The law moved on this. A lot of workplace advice hasn't.
Your employer is responsible for a supervisor's harassment. For a coworker, the question is usually what the company knew and what it did about it.
"I didn't report it"
Most people didn't, and there are good reasons. You needed the job. The person to report to was the person doing it. You'd watched what happened to the last person who said something.
Not reporting makes a case harder in places. It doesn't end it. What matters more is what exists: messages, a note you made at the time, somebody who saw it, a pattern in who gets scheduled or promoted, an HR file that says something different from what you were told.
If you did report it and nothing happened, that's often the strongest part of the case rather than the weakest.
What you might recover
Lost pay and benefits, compensation for what it did to you, and in some cases penalties against the employer. Under FEHA the employer can also be ordered to pay your legal fees rather than having them come out of what you receive.
You won't find figures on this page. Anyone attaching a number to a case they haven't heard is guessing. On a call, once I know the facts, I'll give you a range and tell you what it depends on.
Deadlines
There's a step before a lawsuit in most of these cases: a complaint to the Civil Rights Department, which then issues a right-to-sue notice. That has its own deadline, and the lawsuit afterwards has another one running from the notice.
Public employers have a separate, much shorter clock. People miss that one without ever knowing it existed.
They're shorter than they sound, they start from when the thing happened, and when one closes the claim is finished. If this has been going on for a while, that's a reason to call sooner rather than a reason to wait and gather more.
What it costs
Nothing to talk to me. If I take the case you pay nothing unless money is recovered for you, and case costs come out of the recovery, not your pocket. If we don't win, you don't pay. In writing, before you sign.
What to keep
Don't delay calling for this. But if you have the messages, your own notes with dates, any complaint you made and how you made it, your reviews, and the names of people who saw any of it, we start further along.
One thing to avoid: don't go back into a work account or system you're no longer allowed to use. It takes a clean case and makes it complicated.
Questions people ask
What counts as workplace discrimination in California? The protected list is longer than most people expect, and two of the things on it surprise everybody.
Get in touch
Beverly Hills, working across California.
Leave your name, a number and one sentence. I'll call you back. Don't attach documents and don't write the confidential details here.
Sending this doesn't make me your lawyer, and no deadline is protected until we've both signed a written agreement. If yours is close, call instead of writing.
Free consultation
Tell me what happened
Ten minutes on the phone is usually enough for me to tell you whether you have a case. If you do not, I will say so on the call.