Employment Discrimination

Tenacious Los Angeles Attorney for Discrimination Lawsuits

California’s laws provide expansive rights to employees. Among these is the right to sue businesses for damages based on discrimination. Generally, discrimination lawsuits can be pursued when an employer takes an adverse action against an employee based on a characteristic protected under federal, state, or local laws. Discrimination complaints and lawsuits can result in serious financial harm to a business. We stand ready to defend these types of claims carefully and knowledgeably. Whether your company has received a complaint of race discrimination or disability discrimination, it is important to talk to seasoned Los Angeles employment discrimination lawyer Ben Mehdian. Mr. Mehdian uses insight gained over many years to develop sophisticated defense strategies for businesses.

Los Angeles Lawyer to Defend Against Workplace Discrimination Claim

Federal, state, and local laws prohibit employment discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces a cluster of the federal antidiscrimination laws are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). These include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). These laws apply to midsize and large companies.

Title VII, for example, applies to those employers that have at least 15 employees. Under Title VII, an employer cannot take an adverse employment action against an employee for his or her sex, race, national origin, color, or religion. To pursue damages, an employee must file a charge with the EEOC within a narrow window of time to be able to proceed to court under federal law. The EEOC must have a chance to investigate before the employee can sue in federal court. Once you realize that the EEOC is investigating an employee or former employee’s claim, you should give our lawyers a call. Any adverse employment action you take in response to the employee’s complaint may be construed by an embittered employee as retaliation [link to retaliation], so the situation must be handled by a seasoned attorney to minimize that risk.

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) provides employees with the ability to pursue damages for discrimination based on certain protected characteristics even more aggressively than federal law does. FEHA’s anti-discrimination rules apply to small companies—you may be covered by this law if you have five or more employees. Protected characteristics include:

• national origin,
• race,
• color,
• religion,
• sexual orientation,
• marital status,
• age, if an employee is 40 or above,
• denial of pregnancy disability leave,
• and denial of family and medical care leave.

Importantly, even employees that are perceived to have any of these protected characteristics, but don’t actually have them, are protected. For example, if you believe an employee has a mental disability, even though he does not, and you terminate him as a result, you could face a discrimination complaint.

Under FEHA, your company may be liable for discrimination if an employee or job applicant is able to show that you didn’t reasonably accommodate their religious beliefs and practices or that you didn’t reasonably accommodate their disability to allow them to perform essential job functions. You may also find that your company faces liability for not providing certain types of leave, such as leave based on pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition.

Under federal law, harassment is one form of discrimination. However, FEHA prohibits workplace harassment based on one or more protected traits. Unlike the anti-discrimination provisions of FEHA, the anti-harassment provision applies even when a workplace has just one employee or independent contractor.

Consult a Seasoned Los Angeles Discrimination Lawyer

If your business has been sued for discrimination, much is at stake. You should retain an experienced Los Angeles employment defense attorney able to build a strong defense on the company’s behalf. Ben Mehdian can evaluate the facts of your dispute in light of the laws applicable to it and determine a bold, fearless strategy to seek the outcome you need, whether by pursuing a negotiated settlement or taking a case to trial. Call Ben Mehdian of Mehdian Law, APC at (844) 463-4342 or (310) 889-0706 or contact us to schedule a consultation.