Court Radio: What to Do if You Are Wrongfully Fired or Discriminated Against in the Workplace

By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on January 28th, 2012

If you’ve ever been fired from a job or discriminated against by an employer and wondered if you could sue for damages, you are not alone.

People get fired or laid off all the time, but when it comes to determining whether you are illegally terminated, that’s where it gets tricky. Workplace discrimination happens, too, but proving it can be difficult. In both cases, after the event happens you need to talk to a lawyer to find out about your legal rights and discuss how to proceed.

To help you gain some insights into the process, the topic of wrongful discharge and discrimination will be featured on tomorrow’s live Court Radio broadcast at 7 a.m. Sunday as show host and attorney, Dean Weitzman, and his co-host and fellow attorney, David Rapoport, welcome a special guest to dissect the issues for listeners.

Court Radio is broadcast live every Sunday morning on Philadelphia’s WRNB 100.3 FM, with a simulcast on Magic 95.9 FM in Baltimore. You can also listen live on the Internet at WRNB 100.3 or on Magic 95.9 via streaming audio.

The special guest for the show will be Scott B. Goldshaw, a Philadelphia attorney who has been practicing employment and discrimination law for more than 15 years.

Every such case is different, Goldshaw says, and must be reviewed and investigated thoroughly to determine what really happened and how to proceed through the legal system. That means interviews are conducted with the client to learn all about how their employment was terminated and about what reasons were given for the discharge.

In the end, though, most job hiring is done on an “at will” basis, which means you are hired for as long as your employer wants you work there.  Usually, employers can hire or fire you at will for any reason, unless you can show that their action breaks the law, Goldshaw says. Depending on what the reasons are for the discharge you may or may not have a case, he says.

Among the reasons that can be cited for illegal firings are those based on discrimination in connection to your age, race, sex, religion, disabilities or your national origin, he says.

“Discrimination can be a hard thing to prove,” Goldshaw says. “Employers are aware that it is against the law and most people who break the law don’t do it openly. It’s potentially a very complicated area of the law.”

Goldshaw, a partner at Salmanson Goldshaw, P.C., in Philadelphia, received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan.

More information about wrongful discharge, including 10 things to think about if you are contemplating suing an employer in connection with a firing or discrimination, can be found in an article on the subject by FindLaw.

Be sure to listen in to Court Radio at 7 a.m. Sunday to hear the whole discussion with co-hosts Dean Weitzman and David Rapoport and their special guest, Scott Goldshaw.

About Court Radio

Listeners can call in with their legal questions to 800-539-1479 or they can email their questions to [email protected]. Participants are asked to only ask or submit ONE question each time so that all callers have a chance to discuss the legal topics that are on their minds.

Court Radio is the place to ask your legal questions and get real answers from lawyers with a deep background in the law, from personal injury to contracts and estates, insurance and much more.

Most weeks, Dean brings in a special guest to answer your legal questions and provide information on a dizzying array of legal topics, all with humor, good advice and at no charge to callers. You can even listen to past shows and their featured guests by downloading or listening to stored podcasts.

A production of WRNB-FM radio in Philadelphia, Court Radio is brought to you each week by the law offices of Silvers, Langsam & Weitzman, P.C., which is known throughout the Philadelphia area as MyPhillyLawyer.