Wrongful Termination Because of My AS--Please Help!

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Many attorneys will take a case on assignment, which is to say, they get paid when they win. If they don’t win, they don’t get paid. The deciding factors are usually 1) How hard (or easy) is it going to be to win, i.e. how much work will they have to do, and 2) How deep are the pockets on the other side? There aren’t any deeper pockets than the federal government, so number 2 is a no brainer. As far as the first one, each case is different and only the attorney can decide whether they want to take it on. Your job now is to start calling around and finding out who’s interested. You could start by calling the ACLU.

Before you go that route though, you might want to think things through a little more. Let’s suppose that you find an attorney, it turns out to be an easy case, and you prevail. The jury awards you $3,000,000, most of which your attorney takes as their fee. Would you really want to go back to work in that same department? Would you really want to work for the same person who caused you so much grief?

There are upsides and downsides to everything. Consider them all, and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

geezer

DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney. I have no legal training or legal experience. The opinions offered here are my own and do not represent nor are they intended to represent any semblance of legal advice.

Seethaki,

I had a similar situation a couple months only I was there a week. I am not sure if fileing an EEOC complaint is really worth it. It just wasn't right for you, and you getting terminated was the sign that it's time to move on to bigger and better pastures. That way once you get a another where you're making twice as much and getting treated you can shove it in their face.


But I am kind of in the middle with this actually. I think companies who do any form of discrimination should have to pay for what they did or atleast be exposed. If an attorney won't take your case, blog about it. Companies hate bad publicity.

The next job you get, be sure to disclose and have a plan for accomodation. Meaning, have it outlined what your employers can expect from you, and what you expect from them. That way, if someone tries to set you up, it's discrimination and can be prosecuted. My daughter,who also has AS, had been fired from jobs for the same crap, so I know what you're going through.

Hello, all. Some of you might know that I met my husband (JayShaw--a former moderator) here, though I seldom post. Anyway, I need help very badly with the following situation: I was wrongfully terminated from my position with the U.S. federal government (National Archives and Records Administration) on October 13th for two reasons, both which are *directly* associated with my AS (which was known to my supervisor):

(1.) my "emotional outbursts" (in truth, my occasional crying in the office [alone in my cubicle, sometimes on the phone with my family])
(2.) my "seeming to have difficulty in working as a team player" (yes, her words)

I've already started the EEO complaint (Equal Employment Opportunity) discrimination complaint process, but I need legal representation very badly and cannot afford it.

Most disturbing of all is that just an hour or so after I was fired (when I was in the National Archives' EEO office telling them about what had happened), a fraudulent phone call was made to my former supervisor's voice mail, leaving a message with my voice saying just the word "b***h." I most certainly did not make this call and suspect very strongly that my former supervisor was responsible (this is also disability-related, because she obviously felt I was vulnerable enough not to fight back to this sort of thing, and that no one would believe that I didn't due it, since I have a "mental disorder"). I have heard the message (EEO received a copy of it and emailed it to me, in .wav format), and it is certainly my voice, but even to a non-expert (in digital audio matters) like myself, it was clear the word (which could have even been "pitch" or another "-itch" word) was lifted from another context. It was most likely played into the phone from a small tape recorder or something of that sort. (A friend of mine, who is interested in digital audio matters, has listened to and looked at a digital stream image of the sample [which is only 2 seconds long!], and says there are strong indications that it was edited.)

If anyone has any advice whatsoever, specifically about legal representation, please respond. You can email me at [email protected], too, or private message me here, as well.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jennifer Beckman

Thank you very much, everyone. I am going to start searching diligently for legal representation tomorrow, starting by making a list of everyone's suggestions regarding whom to contact (the suggestions of people from whom I've sought help online, that is--I don't really know anyone to ask about this offline, besides my family).

I will let you know how much search progresses, and feel free to provide any more advice you can think of.