Altadena Employment Discrimination Lawyer

Laws That Protect You From Workplace Discrimination in Altadena, CA

Our California employment discrimination lawyers are familiar with all the laws that protect you from workplace discrimination. They’ll use these laws to determine if you’ve experienced unlawful treatment and demand financial remedies for the impact that discrimination has had on you.

When working on your case, our team may reference any of the following laws:

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964: This act prohibits employers from discriminating against you because of your race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. 
• The Fair Employment and Housing Act:  This law protects California workers and prohibits employers from discriminating against you because of your race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy, religion, or because you have a disability.  It also requires employers to provide you with reasonable accommodations so you can perform the essential functions of your job if you have a disability.  
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967: This piece of legislation protects you from age discrimination if you are older than 40. 
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): This law prevents employers from discriminating against you because of a physical disability. The act also requires your employer to provide you with reasonable accommodations.
• The Pregnancy Discrimination Act: This law protects you from pregnancy discrimination or discrimination against a medical condition related to pregnancy.

As you can see, several laws protect you from discrimination in the workplace. While these laws provide a great deal of protection to workers, they can be difficult to understand or navigate. Fortunately, our employment discrimination lawyers from Altadena can explain the laws that apply to your case and determine if you have grounds for a claim.

How Do I Know if I Have Grounds for an Employment Discrimination Claim?

If you feel like you’ve been mistreated at work, it doesn’t automatically mean that you have grounds for a discrimination claim. A legitimate discrimination claim must include two important factors. To qualify for a claim, your employer must have taken an adverse employment action against you because you are a member of a protected category.

The law is specific about what counts as a protected category, so it can be helpful to familiarize yourself with the definition if you believe your employer is discriminating against you. You’ll also want to learn more about adverse employment actions. Doing so will help you determine if hiring an Altadena employment discrimination attorney is right for you.

Protected Categories

The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits employers from discriminating against you on the basis of a protected category. According to the law, protected categories include the following:

• Age (if over the age of 40)
• Sexual orientation
• Sex
• Gender identity
• Race
• National origin, citizenship
• Religion
• Disability status/medical condition, genetic information
• Marital status
• Political affiliation
• Military or veteran status
• Pregnancy status
• Hairstyle

Adverse Employment Actions

Discrimination must also involve an adverse employment action being taken against you. An adverse employment action is an action that your employer takes against you that negatively alters the privileges and conditions of your employment. Reach out to our Altadena employment discrimination attorneys if your employer has taken one of the following actions against you because of a protected characteristic:

• Fired you
• Demoted you
• Gave you a pay cut
• Gave you a negative performance review
• Failing to hire you
• Failing to promote you
• Reprimanding you
• Transferring you to another position
• Blacklisting you

While the discrimination you’re experiencing may seem obvious to you, your attorney must prove that you’re being discriminated against to obtain financial remedies on your behalf. To do so, they must present evidence that shows your protected category was the direct motivation for the adverse action that your employer took against you.

Proving Causation in Your Employment Discrimination Case

One of the most important services that an employment discrimination lawyer from Altadena can offer is to prove causation in your case. When an employment discrimination attorney refers to “proving causation,” they’re talking about presenting evidence that shows the adverse employment action that was taken against you was directly motivated by your protected category.

Here’s what an attorney from our team can do to connect the adverse action you experienced to your protected category:

• Gather evidence, such as emails, documents, and witness testimonials, that show your employer was motivated to take an adverse employment against you because you belong to a protected category
• Use evidence to show that the reason your employer provided you for as to why it took an adverse employment action against you was dishonest
• Establish that your employer was aware of your protected category, as some categories, like pregnancy status, aren’t immediately obvious
• Show that the adverse employment action was taken shortly after your employer became aware of your protected category
• Establish that you were treated differently from colleagues who are not in the same protected category as you

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