Legal Question in Employment Law in Louisiana

Re: termination -past criminal conviction

Dear LawGuru Friend,

I am a lawyer, but I am not an expert on labor and employment law; nevertheless, is if the nature of all lawyers to know a little about about every area of the law. I notice also that no other lawyer has come on and attempted to answer your question; therefore, I will give my legal, but non-expert, opinion on your question. As much as I would like to give you some good news and tell you that you have a right to sue the employer and win money to compensate you for damages, neveretheless, I must advise you that in Louisiana we operate according to what is referred to as the "employment at will" doctrine; and that means that just as you can quit a job any time without giving any reason, the employer also can terminate your employment at any time without giving any reason; and, further, the fact that the employer does give a reason does not change things, with perhaps the exception of where the employer would terminate an employee because of his race or religious persuasion. In your specific case, unless you had a contract of employment guaranteeing you a job for a specific period of time or providing in advance the only reasons that you may be terminanted, then you are just without a remedy to gain justice for the unjustified way in which your employer terminated you. I am a lawyer that likes to say that for every injustice the law provides for a remedy, and it is just up to a good lawyer to figure out what that remedy is and to pursue it until justice is done. In your case that would be difficult for me to do. As a practical matter, if I were representing you, I would ask you if perhaps you might have been injured during your employment so that you might pursue a workers compensation claim aganst the employer; or if perhaps the employer had violated your right to privacy by communicating to some third party some information that is privileged and that the employer has no legal right to convey, so that you might have a potential damage suit against the employer who has obviously done you wrong.

Now I know this is not what you want to hear and it is not what I would like to be able to say to you, but this is the best analysis that this old lawyer of almost forty years can give you. But don't just take my word for it; check with some other lawyer or lawyers, just like you are doing here until you find a better opinion than mine that gives you some hope of satisfactory justice. Most lawyers are willing to talk to you about a potential case for no fee. Find out who is an expert in employment law in your area and talk with that lawyer. Best of luck to you and your family! I hope you find that remedy for justice that I am wont to say is always there is a good lawyer can just find it and pursue it until justice is done.

Sincerely,

Hardy Parkerson, Atty.

Lake Charles, LA

Re: termination -past criminal conviction

Unfortunately, you probably don't have a remedy. As the other attorney who responded to this message explained, because Louisiana is an "at-will" state, you can be fired for any reason, good, bad or indifferent, as long as it is not discriminatory. Now, if you think you were fired because of your race, age, religion, etc., and your employer used your past-felony conviction as a pretext for firing you, then you may have a cause of action. One thing I would note, however, is that you might have a cause of action against the person that disclosed that information to your employer. How did that person find out? was it public knowledge, or did they get the information from somewhere else? This too may be difficult, but it might help. Good luck.