Can You Sue the Same Employer More Than Once Over Different Discriminatory Acts?

An employment discrimination lawsuit formally begins when you file a complaint in court.  Of course, there may be preliminary requirements, like exhausting your administrative remedies before you file, and sometimes the employer even agrees to settle the case before it gets to the courthouse.  The complaint may be dozens of pages long; it may name multiple defendants, including the company or government agency that employs you, the coworkers who mistreated you, and the leaders within the organization who knew about the discriminatory actions but did not do anything to stop them.  A single complaint might allege several violations of employment law by the same defendants against the same employee.  For example, the same person can allege racial discrimination, sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and wrongful termination in the same lawsuit.  It would make sense to include all of these claims if the plaintiff complained to her supervisor about coworkers persistently making insulting remarks about her race and gender, and in response, the employer fired the plaintiff.  It is also possible to file separate lawsuits about separate discriminatory actions if they occurred far apart in time.  There may be many reasons why you choose to file a single or multiple lawsuits. If you already sued your employer once, but things only got worse afterward, contact a Los Angeles discrimination and harassment lawyer.

Firefighter Gets Money, but Not Justice, After First Lawsuit

An African-American firefighter joined a fire department in California in 2008, and from the beginning, he experienced harassment in the form of racially charged insults from his coworkers.  These continued even after he complained to his work supervisors about the harassment.  He sued the county in 2013, and in 2015, the court awarded him $2.6 million.

Of course, the plaintiff’s goal was not to be a millionaire, but to be a fire battalion chief.  After he won the lawsuit, he continued to work for the same fire department.  He applied for a promotion, but the department refused to let him take the exam; one of his supervisors even said that minorities always cheat on the exam.  The plaintiff complained to outside regulators about this and other violations of the law.  For example, supervisors continued to discriminate against the plaintiff and other employees of racial minority background.  The fire department also used firetrucks for illegal purposes, such as to drive to a jewelry store to pick up jewelry that a firefighter had bought and to attend the birthday party of the child of a firefighter’s friend.  In 2021, the fire department fired the plaintiff, several months after he complained about these violations.  In 2022, he filed two more lawsuits against the fire department, one alleging whistleblower retaliation and the other alleging wrongful termination of employment.

Speak With a Los Angeles Employment Discrimination Lawyer

A Los Angeles employment discrimination and retaliation lawyer can help you resolve your employment discrimination claim even if this is not your first time suing your employer.  Contact Litigation, P.C. in Redondo Beach, California to discuss your situation or call (424)284-2401.

Source:

whittierdailynews.com/2022/06/03/montebello-firefighter-files-5-million-lawsuit-against-city-alleging-wrongful-termination/