i was fired

[Tinajames]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ca

 

[Tinajames]

I was fired for misconduct and won my EDD case

 

[quincy]

I was fired for misconduct and won my EDD case

Did you have a legal question?

 

[cbg]

Winning your EDD case does not mean that firing you was illegal, or even that your employer was wrong to fire you. Unemployment is there for people who lose their jobs for no fault of their own.

So if you want us to tell you whether prevailing in an EDD case means you have a case for wrongful termination, you're going to have to provide us with some details. The vast majority of people collecting unemployment were legally fired/laid off/let go.

 

[commentator]

okay, now you're on the right place at least with your own thread. So now, about the state? Anyhow, unemployment is a closed system. Which means that you'll never see on national television that some celebrity has been approved for their unemployment benefits after being fired from say, Fox News for gaining weight. Anything that happens in your unemployment hearing stays there, unless you or your former employer tells anyone else about it. They do not swap information or provide information to any other agencies such as the EEOC regarding possible discrimination or illegal activities on the part of the employer. They do provide information to social services about the amount of unemployment you have received, in cases where you might possibly be on public assistance or some income based program.

And whatever decisions they have made are related ONLY to unemployment law. It DEFINITELY does not mean that you have either a wrongful termination or an EEOC case that you were approved for unemployment insurance. What it means is that the employer did not show that they had enough of a valid misconduct reason to terminate you. You had not been warned properly, you had not been given the chance to change your behavior and keep your job. They just gave you the heave ho out the door, and didn't present enough justification to meet the criteria established by the unemployment system to show "good cause" to fire you.

This said, even though you "won" your unemployment benefits, that doesn't mean much about the other issues. You say you received $6000, which means, most likely that it has taken quite a bit of time to get a favorable decision from the unemployment system. And you've gotten caught up on your benefits, which incidentally are NOT backpay, they are weekly payments for where you have made certifications for benefits ever since you signed up for unemployment. These weekly benefits are paid according to your monetary eligibility based on wages you paid in where you worked in the last five quarters before you filed. And you did not pay in the unemployment benefits, they are paid for and and taken directly from the employer's tax account. When a new employer comes in, they have to pay unemployment taxes based on the old employer's past record, so of course they didn't want to give you unemployment and tried to protest your receiving them. That's just something they do with most all unemployment claims, if they've fired anyone. That they fired you and then that you won your unemployment insurance approval and backpayment of weekly benefits is good, certainly better than being fired and NOT being approved for benefits. But you did not find out anything significant related to whether or not you'd have a good chance of a wrongful termination suit or a valid EEOC complaint.

And if you read more of the back posts put up here, you will find that "wrongful terminations" are like reindeer, they do exist in certain parts of the world, but they're pretty rare and you're not likely to run into one in your life. Most of the states in the United States are "at will" states, which means if they don't like you and would like to get rid of you, they can fire you for pretty much any reason they want to. And then if they can't show that you were fired for a valid misconduct reason according to unemployment law in your state, you may get approved to draw a little bit of unemployment for a short time. But that has very very little to do with your having been fired for a reason that would give you a valid EEOC complaint or even less likely to give you a wrongful termination by legal definition.

If you have gotten an attorney to take your case on a contingency basis, this may mean they think you do have some sort of valid EEOC complaint or wrongful termination lawsuit. Go for it and good luck to you in pursuing it with them. If they insisted you pay them before they were willing to start work on you a case, then beware, they are simply gaming you to get some of those unemployment benefits you have been backpaid.