You may feel completely blindsided after your employer informs you that you are terminated from your current job position. You may be all the more confused if your employer is unable or unwilling to back this up with a valid explanation. A situation like this may hint that you have been unjustifiably fired. Follow along to find out whether you can sue your employer for wrongful termination and how a proficient Gloucester County New Jersey wrongful termination lawyer at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. can help better determine whether you have a solid case on your hands.
What constitutes a wrongful termination case?
You must understand that New Jersey is an “employment at will” state. This means that, under certain conditions, your employer may hold the legal right to terminate you, at their discretion and for no reason at all. However, this is not to say wrongful termination does not exist. Rather, yours may be a case of an unlawful firing under any of the following circumstances:
- Your employer wrongfully terminated you without following certain procedures written out in your employment agreement.
- Your employer wrongfully terminated you based on a trait protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (i.e., race, color, national origin, religion, etc).
- Your employer wrongfully terminated you after you took the time off allotted to you under the federally-mandated Family Paid Medical Leave Act or state-mandated New Jersey Family Leave Act.
- Your employer wrongfully terminated you after you reported their illegal activities or unsafe working conditions to the Human Resources Department or the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
- Your employer created a working environment that was so intolerable that any reasonable employee would have similarly felt forced to bow out of their current job position.
What is my eligibility to sue my employer for wrongful termination?
If any of the above circumstances relate to how you were wrongly fired, then there is a high probability that you are eligible to sue your employer for wrongful termination.
But to be sure, you should ask your employer for a written explanation for why you were terminated, if you have not done so already. You may get the confirmation you need if their written explanation lacks substance, clarity, or truth; or better yet, if they altogether refuse to provide you with one. An additional piece of evidence you may seek for vindication is written statements from your former colleagues who witnessed your firing or how you were treated in the time prior. Or, copies of written correspondence between you and your employer preceding your firing.
Once you have gathered all this proof, you may present it to a lawyer, who may take charge of your wrongful termination case from here. In conclusion, there is no need to second-guess your decision to retain the services of one of the talented New Jersey employment lawyers. This is because we guarantee that someone at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. will know how to guide you through every step.
