fired need help filling EEOC claim

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has anyone actually won an EEOC case?

I can not even find a disability Laywer in KC MO that will talk to me, none know about Aspergers.

Anyone know a disability lawyer in Kansas City that could help?

What now?

I was dismissed with no warning at all and I was replaced with someone with out AS. I wasn't even fired for my job performance but for something outside of work completly.

Any Ideas?

Never been fired before, pretty confused.

I'll give you my 2 cents based on actual experience and having gone to law school.

The EEOC is a joke. The laws they enforce are twice the joke EEOC is.

EEOC is only going to show interest if your employer is "high profile" enough. They need funding and they must justify their existence by getting big judgments...that means going after someone like Wal-Mart, not Podunk Joe's plumbing shop. It's not uncommon for them to sit on a case until everything goes cold then let you have a "right to sue" letter (which says that you have pursued your matter through EEOC and are free to try private litigation channels as an alternative).

The ADA and most Title 7 protections under the USC/USCA only matter if you can get someone willing to enforce them, and depending on where you live, most courts will heavily favor the employer's side...even though the law says once you make a prima facie case for discrimination, they must prove the DID NOT discriminate in order to prevail. One attorney I know who does do discrimination law told me flat out that even when she has the proverbial "smoking gun" she has not won cases.

So...the law says one thing, but in practice, the exact opposite happens.

It would help to have some details as to what happened. Lots of things may feel like discrimination, but they legally will not be seen as such. Employers have the right to hire, promote and fire as they see fit. Even if you are disabled, there are many legitimate ways to deny you employment, deny you advancement or terminate your employment without violating the provisions of law.

That's why I generally tell people in such situations to just get up and move on. The time and energy you waste trying to get "justice" is wasted. In some cases, it's good to fight, but the only people I see the law protecting are those clever enough to invoke the law BEFORE damage is done (filing an EEOC complaint before they are fired...which makes any termination or demotion an act that is presumed to be retaliation for filing the complaint).

Well, it depends a very great deal on why you were fired, and what your employer knew, or ought properly to have known at the time of the firing.

If you are having difficulty finding a lawyer who is familiar with AS, try contacting the local community agency that provides autism support--they may have names of lawyers who have assisted other people on the autism spectrum in disputes relating to housing, employment and services.

it's a huge long story.... i did file an EEOC inquiry in may- I didn't go through with charges because of retaliation.
I guess since I was gonna be fired anyway, I should have gone through with it.

They eventually fired me for posting on facebook that I was going to serve our clients for the day and not do the extra duties that had been dumped on me because of a merger.

Now would be a REALLY good time to mention 4 things;

1- my facebook is not under my given name, nor does it have my picture on the profile nor do I EVER mention the name of the company I worked for. ( the majority of my freinds are spread all over the place and careless about the name of the people i worked for, so i never felt inclined to mention names, my facebook isn't under my name because all of my art freinds know my by my nickname, no one i care about, other than family, calls me by my name. Unfortunatly i allowed a co-worker as a freind and she took my profile to the boss, now her sister-in-law has my job.)

2- my facebook is locked down and completly private save for freinds.

3- I posted what I posted as an affirmation to myself after going to a psychologist because of job stress. He told me to take care of our clients first and maintain my integrity because it sounded like they were targeting me, trying to make me quit.

4- The office has no social networking rule, not that I felt I was breaking ANY rules with what I posted. The exact post was

"*Expletive* licensing, today I am going to do my processing, and if my bosses don't like it they can fire me. my 186 policies need my attention."

She basically fired me for brusing her ego!

If those are the facts of why you got fired, you don't have a case.

The whole "social networking" issue on Facebook means that someone you allow to have access told someone what you posted. Ultimately, you are an "at will" employee, and if the employer doesn't like how you cut your hair last week, you can be fired.

If what you posted got some supervisor's panties in a wad, that's enough to be terminated, and, from what you said, it sounds like they were pushing you to quit for a while.

If any of this pressure was due to being autistic, your best hope would have been IF you had filed a formal complaint before being terminated. You didn't, so proving anything is an uphill battle. I doubt your employer is high-profile, but I don't know who you worked for.

For future reference, for anyone here, you need to know that there IS NO BENEFIT to filing an INTERNAL EEO complaint with an employer. Inside means anything can happen, and if the EEO staff are corporate "'yes' men," your complaint and documentation can magically vanish the day you are fired. So, the best route is to always file with an outside EEO agency (if your state has one) or federal EEOC so you have proof of your claim being made or if you risk doing an internal matter, you retain a lawyer and have him/her submit your complaint to the company. The company knowing you have legal counsel means they know they can't sweep the matter under the rug. Calling you paranoid and delusional (personal experience) is one thing. Saying that of you and your attorney (who is an officer of the court) is another.