Wrongful Termination in California – Top 5 Grounds for a Claim

California is an at-will state, which means your boss can fire you at any time for no reason at all. However, there are exceptions: You can sue your employer for wrongful termination if you are let go due to either:

1. breach of contract,
2. discrimination,
3. retaliation,
4. Warn Act violations, or
5. public policy violations.

Depending on your wrongful termination case, you may be able to get your old job back. You may also be entitled to lost earnings, emotional distress, and even punitive damages, which can be far larger than any wages you were cheated out of.

In this article, our California labor and employment lawyers discuss the following wrongful termination topics:

• 1. Five Grounds to Sue
• 2. Gathering Evidence
• 3. Filing a Complaint
• 4. Money and Remedies
• 5. What if I quit my job?
• Additional Reading

1. Five Grounds to Sue

In California, wrongful termination occurs when your employer fires you or lays you off for unlawful reasons.

Even if your boss claims there was no reason – or if they make up a reason – you can still win a wrongful termination lawsuit. As discussed below, you just have to show that your boss’s true motivation violated the law.

1) Breach of Contract

A common ground of wrongful termination lawsuits in California is that the firing breached the employment contract.

It is not necessary that there be a written contract. It may be enough to have an oral contract or an “implied contract.” For example, your employer may have created an implied contract not to terminate you without good cause by:

• issuing an employee handbook listing specific reasons why employees may be fired and/or
• telling you in person that your job is safe as long as you do not do certain things in violation of company policy.

You and your employer also have an “implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” Your boss may have broken this covenant through non-communication, inaction, fraud, lies, interference, or evasiveness.¹

2) Discrimination

It is a sad reality that some bosses have prejudices and preconceived biases against certain people that have nothing to do with their merit or work ethic. Therefore, California and federal employment law prohibits employers from firing you based on your “protected characteristics.” These include such traits as:

• pregnancy or
• pumping breast milk at work.³

There are also some protected traits that you cannot be fired for in California but that are not explicitly recognized under federal law. These include:

• medical conditions (including HIV status)
• political activities or affiliations,
• labor union activities,
• marital status,
• being a victim of domestic violence, assault or stalking, or
• height and weight (in some cities such as San Francisco).⁴

Your employer may have had “mixed motivations” where there were both nondiscriminatory and discriminatory reasons to fire you. As long as the discriminatory reason was a substantial trigger for your firing, then it constitutes wrongful termination.⁵

Protected classes such as pregnant mothers may have grounds to sue for wrongful termination.

3) Retaliation

In California, employers may not fire you in retaliation for exercising your rights, even if it is inconvenient to them. As discussed below, you are entitled to certain protections regarding leave, wages, workers’ comp, whistleblowing, and more.

Taking Leave

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and California Family Rights Act (CFRA) provide eligible employees with 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year. It is wrongful termination for employers to fire you for taking leave that you are entitled to.⁶

In fact, wrongful termination is presumed in California if an employer fires you within 30 days after you request to use paid sick leave. At that point, the employer would have the burden to demonstrate that your firing had to do with something other than leave-taking.⁷

Note that employers also may not fire you for serving on a jury or serving as a volunteer firefighter during an emergency. Nor may employers fire you for taking time off work if you have been a victim of specific crimes and are seeking help.⁸

Wage and Hour Disputes

It is not unusual for employers and workers to clash over unpaid overtime pay, missed rest or meal breaks, or other wage and hour issues. However, your boss may not fire you for complaining about it or even for filing a claim with the Department of Industrial Relations.⁹

Note that in an emergency, employers also may not fire you for refusing to come to – or stay at – work because you have a reasonable belief the work site is not safe.¹⁰

Furthermore, during your off-hours, California employers may not fire you in retaliation for any lawful conduct you take part in away from the office. For example if you go to a protest for a cause your boss disagrees with, they cannot fire you for it.¹¹

Harassment and Discrimination

Many retaliation claims fall under FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act), which is meant to protect against workplace harassment and discrimination. For example, it is a FEHA violation if your boss terminates you because you either:

• opposed or filed a complaint about harassment (including sexual harassment) or discrimination,
• requested accommodations for your disability or religious beliefs, or
• testified or assisted in any FEHA proceeding.¹²

Workers’ Compensation

If you work for a publicly traded company, the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 gives you the right to sue for wrongful termination if your employer fires you for reporting suspected securities fraud to the federal government or a supervisor.¹⁵

Another important whistleblower law is the “qui tam” section of the California False Claims Act, which allows you to sue your employer on behalf of the state if your employer committed fraud or embezzlement with respect to government funds. Then if your employer terminates you for bringing a qui tam suit, you can sue for wrongful termination.¹⁶

2. Gathering Evidence

In most lawsuits, the burden is on you to prove that you are a victim of wrongful termination in California. Five types of evidence that can help demonstrate that you were fired unlawfully include:

1. Recorded communications. Examples include emails or voicemails from managers that show harassing or prejudicial behavior.
2. Written communications. Examples include performance reviews, termination letters, handwritten notes, memos, and social media posts that suggest you were treated unfairly.
3. Eyewitness accounts. Fellow co-workers who can back up your side of the story are invaluable. An example would be a colleague who saw your manager harass you.
4. Company employment data. This information may reveal that your former employer is systemically prejudiced. For example, a lack of people of color in management positions indicates that the hiring partners may be discriminating in favor of white employees.
5. Your journal. If you documented any conversations you had with your supervisor or colleagues about your job performance, expectations of job security, etc., that could help prove that your boss’s grounds for firing you were unlawful. The most valuable written records include dates, locations, and the names of all the participants to the conversation.

Your California employment attorney can also conduct an investigation in search of evidence or witnesses helpful to your case. Your attorney can request necessary documents from your former employer so you do not have to deal with them directly.

3. Filing a Complaint

If you lose your job and believe you have a wrongful termination claim against your former employer, contact an experienced California employment attorney to discuss your options and goals. If many cases, you never need to file a lawsuit.

For instance, if your firing was related to discrimination or harassment, you would file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). The CRD will investigate your claim and may try to mediate a resolution. Otherwise, the CRD may issue a right-to-sue notice, allowing you to then file a lawsuit in civil court.

Or if your firing stemmed from a wage and hour dispute, you can file a claim with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office. If they cannot resolve your case, you still have the option of suing.

4. Money and Remedies

Some victims of wrongful termination just want their jobs back. Others want as much money as possible. Still others want systemic change so that their former boss cannot mistreat their workers again.

Whatever your situation and goals, your attorney will fight for the most favorable resolution possible. There are six types of wrongful termination damages you may be entitled to.

1. Lost wages and benefits plus interest. This is the back pay and front pay you reasonably could have expected to earn had you not been wrongfully fired. However, this amount of unpaid wages will be reduced (“mitigated”) by the wages and benefits that you actually earned – or could have earned – from substantially similar employment.²¹
2. Job reinstatement. In reality, most people do not want their old job back following a contentious legal proceeding.
3. Pain and suffering. This can include compensation for physical pain, mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, grief, anxiety, loss of professional reputation, or humiliation arising from the traumatic experience of losing the job.
4. Attorney’s fees and litigation costs. You can collect attorney’s fees from your former employer in a few types of wrongful termination cases, such as those involving FEHA or Sarbanes-Oxley.²²
5. Punitive damages. Punitive damages are only awarded in cases where the employer is found to be guilty of oppression, fraud or malice. They are more common in discrimination cases.²³
6. Declaratory and injunctive relief. This is when the judge orders your former employer to take certain actions, such as issuing you a formal apology or undergoing a sexual harassment training course.

How much money you get varies depending on your wrongful termination case. For example, breach of contract cases typically yield lost wages and benefits. However, cases involving public policy violations may lead to extensive emotional distress damages.²⁴

Out-of-court settlements are typically lower than what a jury would return should the case go to trial. Still, settlements are quicker and easier than trials. Note that any attorneys’ fees and court costs come out of the settlement amount.

If your former employer is covered by EPLI insurance, then the insurance company rather than the employer will be in charge of its defense.

5. What if I quit my job?

In California, you can still pursue a wrongful termination claim if you were not actually fired. You would just have to show you were constructively discharged. This means that:

1. Your employer intentionally created – or knowingly permitted – working environments that were so intolerable that a reasonable employer would expect a reasonable employee to resign because of them; and
2. Your employer would not have been within their rights to terminate you outright due to an implied oral contract or because termination would have been against public policy.²⁵

Winning wrongful termination cases where you resigned instead of getting fired can be tricky. The key is presenting the court with enough evidence to make the jury believe that they would have also quit if they were in your position.

Additional Reading

For more information about California wrongful termination laws, refer to our related articles:

• Examples of wrongful termination – Scenarios where you may be able to sue an employer for unlawfully firing you.
• How to prove wrongful termination – Methods and strategies for persuading a judge or jury that your firing violated the law.
• Statute of limitations to bring a wrongful termination case – Detailed discussion of exactly when you have to file a claim depending on your type of wrongful firing case.
• Wrongful termination damages – In-depth guide to what remedies you may be entitled to after being illegally let go from your job.
• Average settlement in wrongful termination cases – Overview of the standard outcome in unlawful firing cases.

Legal References