Victories

• Our client worked in a hospital and sustained a work injury on the job while she was moving a patient. As a result of this work injury, the employee required accommodations to do her job. Instead of accommodating the employee, she was fired. Then, the company tried to cover up its actions and claimed the employee “quit.”  We found an out-of-state, former employee of the hospital who wanted to come clean and tell what really happened.

• A CNA earned $11/hour and complained that she was being subjected to racial discrimination. Shortly thereafter, she was fired. The employer alleged that the firing was due to “insubordination” but we dug deep and discovered that it was all a fraudulent cover-up.

$685,000

• Our client was harassed at his warehouse job due to his race. After he complained, he started to be overly scrutinized and was suddenly found to be a poor performer. In the end, the only poor performance was the attempted coverup!

$975,000

• Our client worked as a personal assistant for a high-profile Hollywood star. The star, who was getting drunk with her friends one night, insulted our client, grabbed her arm in an embarrassing and offensive manner, and called her insulting names.  Our client quit shortly thereafter since she was humiliated by this treatment.

$695,000

• An employee who worked over 20 years for his company was terminated shortly after a young supervisor took over his department. One of the first interactions between them was the supervisor asking our 50-something year old client when he was going to retire!  Smells like age discrimination when this same young supervisor fired our client for some silly reason and said, “We are moving in a different direction.”

$750,000

• An employee in the hospitality industry has a brand new supervisor (half her age) who starts barking orders and unreasonable requests at our client. The new, young supervisor started making impossible goals for our client to fulfill and, when our client didn’t make those new goals, she was fired and replaced with “a younger model.”

$500,000

• An employee at a construction company made a complaint about racial inequality in the workplace and she was fired shortly thereafter on some bogus reasons like “performance.” Smells like retaliation! Smells like Vegas!

$975,000

• A temp agency worker for a high tech company was on the job for only six days (you read that correctly.)  She complained to upper management that she felt like she was being discriminated against by her manager. On the day of her complaint, her “assignment ended.” We sued them for retaliation.

$235,000

• Our client was an IT specialist in his 50s when the hospital he worked for laid him and 10 other employees off. The interesting thing was that the two lay-offs in his department were of the two oldest people. We alleged age discrimination and the company denied those charges.

$550,000

• An African American branch manager for Brinks was told to fire another African American manager and, “get more white managers in the district.” Our client refused. As a result, he was given a final warning. After three months of false paper trails, Brinks fired our client. We alleged termination due to refusal to engage in illegal discrimination. The Federal jury agreed and gave us everything we asked for.

$725,749

• Our client worked in the car repair industry.  He was told by younger supervisors that he was not “in tune” with computer applications and had a hard time “adjusting to technology.”  We considered those phrases to be euphemisms for age discrimination.  Our client was involved in a bad financial transaction for the company where the company lost a lot of money.  The company used that as a justification  for terminating this long-term employee’s job, replacing him with a worker half his age.  We felt that this was only a pretext to conceal their age discrimination.

$490,000

• Client was terminated as part of a “lay off…” But wait – – A younger replacement was brought in to replace our client after the purported “lay off.” We thought that a “law off” meant that the position was eliminated…in our case, the older worker was eliminated! We got our client PAID IN FULL (and was happy to part of the “layoff”).

$700,000

• A 6-month employee working as a security officer, earning $9.50 per hour, was fired in retaliation for his complaints about racial discrimination.  The company tried to convince the jury that our client was terminated for “missing a mandatory meeting.”  It was undisputed that our client missed that meeting.  However, we found the former employee who witnessed our client getting permission to miss that meeting.  Our client sustained only about $3,000 in lost wages.

$318,637

• Our client was a television producer who was accused of not performing required duties under his employment contract.  The company tried to terminate him “for cause”.  We filed a lawsuit alleging that the termination should be “not for cause” based on technicalities in the contract, which would result in our client being given various compensations upon termination.

$715,000

• Our client worked for a retail chain for several decades as a store manager.  His regional director made comments to our client about how he wanted younger workers in the store and asked our client, “When are you going to retire?” several times.  When our client made some admitted payroll blunders, the regional director used this as an opportunity to fire our client and get his “younger worker” to run the store.  This was a tough case, since our client admitted that he had made some pretty serious payroll errors, which could have reasonably resulted in his termination.

$625,000

• Client was injured at home doing some DIY work. He needed accommodation since he had a hard time getting around. At the construction firm he worked at, they didn’t even bother to accommodate or see what they could do to accommodate. The only accommodation they made was terminating this poor soul. He wasn’t poor after this result!

$550,000

• Our client worked in the legal industry. As an older employee, she was regularly asked about when she would retire. That’s not nice; but the result was!

$705,000

• An administrator from a nursing home decided to terminate based on sexual orientation. Although the company alleged that poor performance was the reasoning, we found ex-employees who said just the opposite.

$440,000

• Our machinist client sustained a workplace injury and, instead of accommodating him, the company placed him in tortuous workplace conditions, hoping for him to quit.  After he weathered the storm and did not quit, he was selected for layoff. Our client had under $7000 in lost wages.

$225,000

• Our client, the vice president of marketing, suffered a disability at work and, two years later, she was replaced by a younger person.  We contended that our client’s termination was due to her age and disability.  The company said that the termination was a result of declining sales.  We investigated the sales in that industry and showed that despite an industry decline, our client still managed to maintain a respectable level of sales.  The trial court dismissed our case for lack of evidence.  We appealed, and the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court and got us the day in court we deserved.

$339,000

• Our client was a social worker who earned $10.50 per hour.  This employee was being harassed by her supervisor and our client felt that the harassment stemmed from the supervisor’s prejudice.  Our client complained to the HR hotline about this and was fired about two weeks after the complaint.  We alleged that the termination was in retaliation for the complaint of discrimination and the company alleged that our client was “insubordinate.”  We proved that the “insubordination” theory was bogus and that the termination was more likely motivated by the discrimination complaint.  Our client worked for this company for about four months.

$395,000

• An African American employee earning about $10 per hour was the subject of discriminatory comments by his supervisor.  He complained about it and was fired about a week later for some bogus reason.  Our client had under $4,000 in lost wages.

$447,000

• An auto accessory installation expert was fired after many years of employment due to a purported “error” in an installation job (even though he had been doing the same installations for over 15 years). We alleged that they terminated our client due to his age.  Especially when we showed that younger employees made the same errors and did not get terminated.  Our client found comparable employment within a few months of his termination.

$290,000

• Our client worked at a car dealership and his manager made nasty comments about our client’s ethnicity.  Our client complained to HR, and HR did what they do best: absolutely nothing to protect the employee.  Our client was retaliated against by his manager and fired shortly thereafter based on a bogus claim of making “fraudulent sales.”  The only thing fraudulent was the reason for termination!

$360,000

• The Plaintiff worked at a prominent restaurant and was made fun of by kitchen staff due to his lifestyle.  Our client complained, and HR did pretty much nothing except look the other way.  After more humiliating treatment, our client quit his job and decided to sue the facility for their failure to prevent harassment.

$235,000

• An employee in health care suffered from a disability that caused him to faint. Company didn’t attempt to find a job that would accommodate our client and be better suited so we suited them with a lawsuit.

$395,000

• An African American man worked as a watch commander at a security company and earned $11 per hour.  After working for only two months at the company, he complained to his boss that a white co-worker called another African American employee a “gorilla.”  He was fired the next week and sustained only about $6,000 in actual lost wages until finding another job.  The company lied and tried to say that the employee “quit.”  We found an ex-employee (that the company tried to hide from us) who told us the whole story — and the jury was convinced.

$227,913

• An older hospitality worker was asked many times when he was gonna “finally retire.” When he indicated he wanted to work until his dying day, they found some reason to fire this old bloke. We got our client a handsome retirement present (not just a fancy pen).

$372,500

• Our client, a recent immigrant from the Middle East, worked for a non-profit organization.  He was subjected to comments about his background and made complaints of the discrimination.  Moreover, our client sustained a serious injury on the job.  The company fired him, claiming that his injury prevented him from doing the job, even with accommodation.

$325,000

• An African American employee, earning $11 per hour, was terminated by a racist supervisor.  That racist gave some phony reason why he terminated our client, but we showed it to be a cover-up for the discriminatory firing.  After only a few months of unemployment, our client got another job.  Nevertheless, we made the company pay for standing behind the racist supervisor.

$365,000

• An experienced employee in marketing for the hotel industry had a new, young supervisor take over.  The new supervisor said they wanted a “younger” sales team and started hassling our client by jacking up the amounts of sales he needed to make on a weekly basis.  Our client couldn’t meet those new expectations and was fired for falling short.  We uncovered evidence that our client was the only employee affected by this new sales schedule; the young salespeople’s numbers were not raised.

$498,000

• An employee of a nursing home was told by his co-worker that people of his ethnicity are “lazy and unfaithful.”  Our client complained to his manager about this conduct and nothing was done.  Our client had to endure these racist comments for nearly 4 months.

$290,000

• Our client worked for a huge corporation and asked for the Sabbath off. Just like in The Big Lebowski, our client didn’t roll on Shabbos. When the foreign corporation (who had no idea about California law and didn’t know they had to accommodate religious requests) caught wind of this religious accommodation request, they found some loser reason to terminate this great employee. A gift from the Sabbath Queen! “

$420,000

• Our client worked as a health care facility manager for about one year and was a fine employee.  A new regional manager took over the facility and made prejudicial remarks about our client.  Our client was terminated a few weeks after this new manager came aboard.  The new manager came up with a long laundry-list of performance issues to justify the termination but we had substantial evidence to demonstrate that the performance problems were drummed up just to terminate our client.

$220,000

• An office clerk was “laid off” by email when her employer said her position had to be eliminated and re-assigned to another person in China.  We suspected age discrimination when our 55 year old client’s job duties were now being done by a 30-year old.  Through tenacious pursuit, our case was victorious even though the company was going through a bankruptcy!

$222,000

• The Plaintiff worked for a private hospital and was terminated after several comments were made by co-workers about his age.  The problem was that the person who terminated our client did not make any age-related comments.  However, we were able to demonstrate that these co-workers influenced the termination of our client based on age-discrimination.

$250,000

• Our client worked for a car dealership and her boss made jokes about her age.  She was fired for taking care of personal matters on the clock, but there were plenty of other younger employees who did the same thing and were not fired.  Smells like disparate treatment due to age discrimination!

$248,000

• A 10-year employee who was an expert in engineering roads was part of a layoff, leaving only much younger employees in his department, which made us suspect age discrimination.  He was only out of work for 9 weeks!

$275,000

• Health care worker who was over 60 years old was doing a great job…until a young supervisor stepped into a position of authority and said all kinds of stupid things on our client’s performance evaluation like that our client was a “seasoned employee” and had problems “adapting” to “young mentalities.”  We saw those all as euphemisms for age discrimination.  When our client was fired for some silly reason a couple of months later, we knew the real reason.

$300,000

• Our client was an equipment operator who suffered from diabetes. She needed accommodation, but all she got were nasty comments about how she was “too lazy to do her job” and that she was “overreacting about her diabetes” and that “anyone can do those tasks.”

$500,000

• Our client worked retail and a younger supervisor who thought she knew everything. She said she wanted a “younger look” in her department and claimed “older people didn’t know how to work computers.” The older worker was fired…but we got her a gorgeous retirement gift!

$785,000

• Our older client worked as a social worker. The owner made some obnoxious comments many years before our client’s “lay off” asking about our client’s expected retirement and said older people “had problems with their memories.” They “eliminated the position” but hired someone a couple months later. We gave them a memory refresher on when happens when you commit age discrimination.

$536,000

• Our client was a property manager. The property owner made some silly comment about our client”being too old to come back to work after COVID.” Well, she came back and was fired shortly thereafter.

$370,000

• An employee was subjected to age-related euphemisms at work for a health care provider. She was terminated for alleged fraud in her accounting but we alleged that the age-related comments played a part in the termination decision

$288,000

• Our $25/hour client was told she “needed more energy” and her sales department was being “restructured” so they needed to let her go. We helped them “restructure” their litigation budget.

$305,000

• Our client worked in accounts payable and took time off to care for his spouse with intermittent leave. He was told he was taking too much time off. The company did COVID layoffs during the slowdown, but we felt that our client’s taking family medical leave played a part in our client being selected for layoff.

$274,000

• One of San Diego’s top trial lawyers represented a real estate management company who fired our client simply because she requested her legally permitted pregnancy leave.  The company lied and said they fired her for “performance.”  The jury opened up a can of justice against the company and, in under two hours, delivered a stinging verdict (even more than we asked for) and voted 12-0 that the company should be liable for punitive damages.

$832,500

• Our client was a great performer at a high-tech company. When her boss found out that she was pregnant and requested leave, they gave her TWO options: quit or get fired. We chose the third: sue those suckers!

$650,000

• Our client made $12/hour as a shipping clerk and took a few months off for maternity leave.  While she was on leave, she was replaced and lost her job.  The company came up with some phony story about our client quitting.

$321,382

• Our client went on protected pregnancy leave and came back to work.  However, she was reassigned to a location 2 hours away from her original worksite – and with a new baby at home!  Yikes!  The jury came back with a punishing result that taught this company never to violate the Pregnancy Disability Laws again.

$900,000

• Ms. Client worked for a retail store and learned she was pregnant.  Great news!  But not to her boss.  When she showed her supervisor her first ultrasound, she was told to “keep your pregnancy quiet; the boss doesn’t like pregnant employees!”  Well, that actually came to fruition after the boss learned about the pregnancy and quickly fired our client for “tardies.”  But guess what…other employees were just as tardy and not fired.  Oops!

$610,000

• Our client worked in the service industry and was pregnant…and her supervisor didn’t like that one bit.  The supervisor made fun of our client’s weight gain during pregnancy (what?!). When our client complained to HR, HR set up a “cage match” and pitted our client to confront the supervisor.  It got really ugly and our client was terminated for “workplace violence.”  After the settlement, our client was last seen in Vegas at the Wynn Hotel!

$900,000

• A part-time, minimum wage waitress at a nation-wide restaurant chain was fired when she needed a few days off for pregnancy related medical issues.  The company said they fired her for missing a “mandatory meeting.”  Missing that meeting was the best thing that ever happened to her at work.

$300,000

• A young salesman was diagnosed with cancer and needed some time off for treatment.  His employer refused to modify his schedule; they just fired him.  The employer even went so far as to deny knowing about our client’s cancer even though we proved they received a medical letter from an oncologist’s office.

$301,700

• There’s no business like show business!  Our client worked for a production company and went on pregnancy leave.  When she came back, there was no job to come back to; the company “eliminated the position.”  What a coincidence!  Luckily our client found a job shortly thereafter and we got her some cash to ease the pain of child-rearing.

$395,000

• A low-wage, part-time office clerk was fired once her pregnancy accommodations limited her ability to do the full scope of her job.  We sued the employer for failure to accommodate her pregnancy.

$250,000

• A computer technician was on leave to care for a family member’s health issues. When he came back from his family medical leave, his position was magically “eliminated” and he was “laid off.”  We sued them for failure to provide family medical leave.

$220,000

• Our client’s employer was asked to accommodate our client who suffered a degenerative condition which affected his cognitive abilities. Truth be told, it’s pretty clear that our client’s condition made it pretty much impossible to do his job, even with accommodation. Nevertheless, the company didn’t do all it needed to do under the Fair Employment & Housing Act.

$285,000

• A group of service technicians worked long hours and were not given rest breaks or lunch breaks.  Many of them decided to sue instead of enduring these oppressive working conditions.

$1,600,000

• Workers installing office communication devices were forced to work oppressive hours and were not getting paid overtime.  A group of the workers were fed up with this practice which made the company richer.  As such, they decided to take their employer to court and seek unpaid overtime, interest, penalties and all of their attorneys’ fees.

$900,000

• Our client worked extensive overtime and was mis-classified as an exempt employee.  The company tried to claim that our client was not entitled to overtime but we proved differently.

$220,000

• Our client installed furniture as part of a government contract for three years.  However, he was not paid prevailing wages for the work he was doing.  This was a single party wage and hour case and was an exceptional result.

$320,000

• Our client worked in a casino. Unfortunately for the company, our client was paid incorrectly paid a SALARY instead of being paid HOURLY and the poor soul was deprived of her overtime pay and legally compliant meal/rest breaks

$210,000

• A property manager did all the property manager goodies – collecting rent, getting calls about clogged toilets, etc, but was just given free rent. Oh no! No wages? We went after the property owner for wages and all the trimmings!

$225,000

• Our client worked for a firm for 1.5 years. He was mis-classified as “exempt” and was not paid overtime even though all he did was clerical work. Then, after he asked for an accommodation for an injury he was fired. We gave them a crash course on the requirement to accommodate.

$447,000