Wrongful Termination FAQs

What are the most important things to know in a hostile work environment case in Michigan?

First, in Michigan, the hostile work environment must be because you belong to a “protected category”—specifically, your age, race, gender, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability.  In other words, a generally “hostile work environment”or bullying due to any reason other than those listed above is not legally actionable. This is true even if your company has a policy prohibiting general hostility in the workplace.  Unfortunately, that alone does not make a hostile work environment unrelated to a “protected category” legally actionable.

Second, in Michigan, the hostile work environment must be either severe or pervasive (it happens frequently). A hostile work environment that is more severe can be less pervasive and vice versa. A single severe incident—e.g., an incident that involves inappropriate touching or inflammatory language, like a racial slur—may be enough. However, a hostile work environment more frequently involves less severe conduct that is pervasive (happens often). For example, if a supervisor or co-worker makes hostile comments related to your gender, race, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or religion several times over a relatively short period (often a year or less), then that can be the basis of a legally viable “hostile work environment” claim.

Third, you will sue your current or former employer, not the person who harassed you. This is the case for two reasons: (1) the co-worker or supervisor who created the hostility is likely judgment-proof (in other words, they don’t have the money to pay a settlement or verdict); and (2) most federal laws prohibit employees from suing the individuals. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential that you make your employer aware, preferably in writing, of the hostile work environment created by a co-worker before your employment ends. Under the law, the employer must have an opportunity to remedy co-worker harassment before they can be held legally liable.

Fourth, the rules are slightly different for supervisors. There is no legal requirement to report your supervisor's harassment to the company. That said, it is still the best practice because it creates additional documentary evidence that your employer was aware of the harassment for trial. That said, management employees are treated like the employer itself carried out the harassing activities.

What are the three most important things to know about employment retaliation cases in Michigan?

First, if you oppose unlawful discrimination or harassment, you have engaged in a "protected activity" and should be protected by your employer from retaliation. In short, if your employer terminates you because you opposed unlawful discrimination or harassment, you may have a valid retaliation case.

Second, if you report unlawful discrimination or harassment to your employer or if you participate in an investigation into unlawful discrimination or harassment, you have engaged in a "protected activity" and should be protected by your employer from retaliation.

Third, the timeline between the “protected activity” and any “adverse employment action” (e.g. demotion, failure to promote, or termination) is very important. Your former employer will never admit it fired you in retaliation for engaging in a “protected activity.” But, if your employer terminates you soon after you oppose or report unlawful discrimination or harassment, your chances of winning a retaliation increase exponentially. In other words, a one-week gap between the “protected activity” and your termination is better than a one-year gap.

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What are the three most important things to know about a discrimination case in Michigan?

First, employers are almost never openly racist, ageist, or sexist anymore. Therefore, almost every discrimination case is proven with circumstantial evidence.  In other words, you prove discrimination cases by putting together all of the circumstances so that any reasonable jury would conclude that your former employer fired you because you are a member of a “protected category”—specifically your gender, race, gender, religion, age, disability, national origin, or sexual orientation.

Second, patterns matter. Your lawyer has to discover and develop as many instances of differential treatment between employees in different “protected categories” as possible. If your attorney fails to discover and develop instances of differential treatment, the case will often be dismissed by a Judge short of trial at a stage called "summary judgment."

Third, the person who discriminated against you must almost always be a supervisor, not a co-worker. Supervisors can terminate an employee, but co-workers cannot. In short, if a co-worker discriminates against you, you may have a harassment case (IF you report the harassment to HR or a supervisor), but you likely do not have a discrimination case because your co-worker can't take any "adverse employment action" against you.

How much is a Michigan wrongful termination case worth?

First, you are entitled to your lost wages. Lost wages fall into two categories: (1) back pay—lost wages and lost benefits—from the time of your termination through the end of trial; and (2) front pay—lost wages and lost benefits from the time of trial onward for a period of time—often another year or two For example, imagine you made $50,000 a year, you were terminated on July 1, 2020, and your trial ends on July 1, 2022 (two years later). Your “back pay” would be $100,000. If a Judge decided you are entitled to "front pay" for another year after trial, you would receive $50,000 in "front pay," for a total of $150,000 in lost wages.

Importantly, you also have a duty to mitigate (or minimize) your lost wages by seeking another job. Continuing our example, if you found a suitable job exactly one year after your termination that also paid exactly $50,000/year, then you would only be entitled to $50,000 in lost wages (or one year’s salary). If you accepted a new job that paid only $40,000/year exactly one year later, you would be entitled to $50,000 (one year’s salary) plus $10,000/year (the difference between your former pay and your new pay) through trial "back pay" and for some period in the future "front pay."

Second, you are entitled to compensatory damages for emotional pain and suffering. This typically includes the following subcategories: (a) emotional pain and suffering, (b) inconvenience, (c) mental anguish, (d) loss of enjoyment of life, (e) injury to professional standing, (f) injury to character or reputation, (g) injury to credit standing, (h) loss of health, (i) fright, (j) shock, (k) humiliation, (l) indignity, (m) apprehension, (n) marital strain, (o) loss of self-esteem, (p) anxiety, (q) depression, (r) loss of respect of one’s friends and family, (s) isolation, and (t) grief. Different people will assign different monetary values to each of these categories. One jury may decide your emotional pain and suffering is worth $10,000, another may decide it's worth $100,000, and another may decide it's worth $1,000,000 or more. Therefore, hiring a skilled and experienced trial attorney to maximize the value a jury assigns to each category makes an enormous difference to the amount of money you are awarded in a trial or in a settlement.

What’s the fair settlement value of a wrongful termination case?

Every case has two values: trial value and settlement value. The trial value always ranges from $0 (meaning you lost the case) up to a number that always exceeds the settlement value of your case. No two juries are alike, so the trial value is actually a range of numbers (one jury may award you $0, another may award you $1,000,000) with an average value.

Generally, the average trial value and the fair settlement value are the exact same. Imagine your exact case, with the exact same facts, was tried to 100 different juries.  Based on the strength of your case,  we estimate 40% of the time your former employer wins (meaning a $0 verdict).  That means you win 60% of the time.  Of that 60%, half the time (50%), a jury returns verdicts of $200,000, and half the time (50%), they return a verdict of $1,000,000. The average trial value of the case is $360,000 (30 trials x $1,000,000 verdict = $30,000,000; 30 trials x $200,000 verdict = $6,000,000; 40 trials x $0 verdict = $0; $36,000,000 total/100 trials = $360,000 average verdict). Therefore, a fair settlement value for your case is $360,000.

However, you must keep in mind that the average trial value/fair settlement value is an estimate, not a certainty. While no attorney can say with certainty the average trial value, an experienced attorney who actually tries cases gets better and better at estimating the average trial value and fair settlement value over time.

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