Legal Question in Employment Law in Texas

When given an intent to terminate employment, should one respond within the time given by the company or should one remain silent if contemplating legal action?


Asked on 1/10/14, 10:12 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Mark Dunn Mark D. Dunn

I don't understand "intent to terminate employment" and I don't know what you mean by "respond."

Did your boss give you two weeks' notice? "John, we're going to let you go. Your last day is January 24."

By "respond," do you mean filing a lawsuit for wrongful termination?

In Texas, it is almost never worth the trouble to file a lawsuit for "wrongful termination." Texas is an "employment at will" state, which basically means that unless you have a written contract of employment (and I bet you don't), you can be fired for any reason or for no reason.

The exception would be: if he fires all the Negroes, or all of the Jews, or all of the people over age 60.

By the same token, if YOU quit, and it's on a crucial busy work day, your boss doesn't have the right to sue YOU.

If you're seriously thinking about filing a suit for wrongful termination: Call a lawyer who does this kind of work on a contingent fee basis. Tell him your story. See if he will agree to take your case for a contingent fee. If he won't, that's a good sign that you don't have a case.

My suggestion? I know a man who was wrongfully terminated. They called him in and were abusive and insulting to him - asked him if his wife knows that he receives Playboy through the office mail, for instance. Looked through his computer to see if they could find something. Then relocated him to a distant office.

He put up a website that told the truth, the whole story, about this company and how they treated him. He named names.

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Answered on 1/11/14, 7:55 am


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