Protecting worker rights around wages, discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination.
Employment law covers the relationship between employers and workers: how wages must be paid, what protections exist against discrimination and harassment, when termination crosses into being unlawful, and whether an employer can restrict where you work next. A large share of U.S. employment is 'at-will,' meaning either party can end it at any time for almost any reason — but critical exceptions exist for discrimination, retaliation, and violations of public policy, and several state-level rules shape how those protections play out in practice.
Save emails, texts, performance reviews, and pay records; contemporaneous documentation is consistently the strongest evidence in an employment dispute.
Internal complaint procedures, arbitration clauses, and non-compete terms all affect your available options.
This creates a paper trail and, for harassment or discrimination claims, is often a required step before external remedies are available.
Discrimination claims typically must first go through a federal or state fair employment agency before a lawsuit can be filed, and there are strict filing deadlines, often as short as 180-300 days from the incident.
Many employment attorneys handle qualifying cases on contingency, particularly wage claims and clear-cut discrimination or retaliation matters.
Most employment disputes resolve through negotiated settlement or an agency-facilitated mediation rather than a full trial.
In most states, yes — at-will employment generally allows termination without cause or notice. The major exceptions are firings based on a protected characteristic (like race, sex, age, disability, or religion), retaliation for a protected activity, or violation of an explicit employment contract.
Harassment becomes unlawful when it is based on a protected characteristic and is either severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment, or when submission to it is made a condition of employment.
Most hourly, non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay (typically time-and-a-half) for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek under federal law, though some states set additional or stricter overtime rules.
This depends heavily on state law and the specific terms of any signed non-compete agreement; some states enforce reasonable non-competes, while a growing number restrict or ban them outright for most workers.
Deadlines are often surprisingly short — commonly between 180 and 300 days from the incident to file with the relevant agency — so prompt action is important even while you're still deciding how to proceed.
Select your state for deadlines, fault rules, court information, and a full walkthrough specific to where you live.
Compensation for physical, emotional, and financial harm caused by another party's negligence.
Recovering damages after a motor vehicle collision, from fender-benders to catastrophic crashes.
Ending a marriage and resolving property, support, and parenting arrangements that follow.
Establishing legal and physical custody, visitation, and parenting time arrangements.