Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Re: Laid off & Workers Comp

Talk to your workers comp attorney, and tell her/him that you want to file a retaliation claim in the workers comp system.

Re: Laid off & Workers Comp

It depends -- the relevant questions are how long you were out on comp leave, whether you occupied a position which had to be filled immediately, what the company's disability leave policies were, whether you had exhausted your FMLA leave; and whether a doctor was prepared to return you to work with restrictions (If that occurred, the employer is required to work with you to see what accommodations can be made to the position to allow you to continue your job.) You may have both a claim under the workers compensation system -- see Labor Code Section 132a (fyi if you go to google and type "find california code" click on the first listed page click on "labor code" and in the search area type "132a," you'll see that statute), and a regular lawsuit for "wrongful termination in violation of public policy," violation of the fmla, violation of the ada, breach of contract (implied in your employer's leave policies. . . ) It really depends on the specifics of your situation, but you may have a good claim. (I did not mention discrimination based on age, but that may also be a viable claim.) All of these issues need to be looked at by an attorney. Pls. note that many workers compensation attorneys are not familiar with all the employment and labor code laws, and may not provide you with good advice on those issues, and that various time limits apply to filing all of the above claims -- a rule of thumb is one year from the wrongful act, but there are differing times to file suit, including a two year time period. Feel free to email me with the details to the above, or call 415-522-5200. Good luck.