Is a lawsuit worth it?

[Maddy32]

I was terminated because of "inappropriate" behavior at work. My behavior was very light in comparison with my male coworkers, but I was given harsher treatment. Guys get away with so much, but we females always get punished for insignificant things. It happens all the time here with most female workers.
I know I might have a case of sex discrimination. The question is, I don't want to be reinstated. I want to get a new job. Is a lawsuit worth it? How much can I get in return? Or what will I get out of suing? is it worth pursuing something like this. How do you estimate the compensatory damages to recover a right like this?

I just want to know whether a lawsuit is worth it, depending on how much I might get, and what will be the results if I pursue it.

Thanks.

 

[cbg]

There is no possible way for us to answer any of your questions.

1.) We have no idea what your offense was or how it compares to others who were similarly situated.

2.)There are several LEGAL, NON-DISCRIMINATORY reasons why you might have been treated differently and we have no idea if any of them apply.

3.) We have no idea what you might have lost in terms of wages and benefits.

4.) We have no idea of the resources of your company.

5.) Even assuming you have a case, which is by no means certain, we have no idea what kinds of awards have been granted in similar situations in your region of the country.

 

[JETX]

In addition to cbg's correct post, I add:

'"I just want to know whether a lawsuit is worth it"
*** In most cases, no. First, you will not find an attorney who will touch this on contingent fee basis. That means that YOU must fund the lawsuit out of pocket. Also, these are never cheap lawsuits.... figure $10,000 and up (probably much higher in your case, due to the lack of direct evidence..... requiring extensive depositions).

"depending on how much I might get"
*** If extremely lucky, you might be able to offset your legal fees.

"and what will be the results if I pursue it."
*** One of the results is that if you are in a career, you will be 'branded' with any potential future employer.

 

[Beth3]

And lastly, you need to file a complaint of prohibited discrimination with your State's equal rights division or the federal EEOC and receive a "right to sue" letter before you can pursue a lawsuit.

 

[Maddy32]

How much to settle for?

Thank you for the responses.

They did not fire me for a non-discriminatory reason. I know the reason why I was fired, and I am certain it is illegal. I won't go into detail since I already know it was disparate impact. There are like 3 men who have been in huge trouble and weren't even reprimanded. My "trouble" was nothing.
I just need to know what will I get out of this.

I will go to EEOC, I suppose I must start with that. Then if I get a right to sue letter, I will get a lawyer who will work on contingency, I know most discrimination lawyers work on contingency.

Since you (cbg) say that my award depends on how much I make and my ex-employer resources, I guess you must be able to give me the formula to compute the amount. For example, if I make $4000/month, and my employer business brings $8 million/year, what can I get?

If I reach a settlement, how do I compute the amount I should request?

 

[Maddy32]

I can tell you that my case was similar to Desert Palace Inc v. Costa.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1052440867400

In that case, plaintiff was awarded "$ 100,000 in punitive damages, in addition to the $ 200,000 in [*864] compensatory damages (later remitted to $ 100,000) and $ 64,377.74 in backpay."

This was in Nevada. I am in New Jersey. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[cbg]

There is no mathematical formula that will automatically tell you how much you will receive. The other factors I mentioned (the strength of your case - and we have only your OPINION as to that, being a major one) are also involved.

There is NO POSSIBLE WAY you can get an estimate of how much you are likely to receive, assuming that you win, on a message board.

If the most important factor to you is the eventual award, (and I don't mean that in a negative way - you need to know if the cost is going to exceed the value before you can make an informed choice as to whether to go forward or not) then you are going to have to pay a lawyer, who will have access to ALL the facts, to provide that information.

 

[Maddy32]

The money is a factor. What else can a lawsuit accomplish? Can you give me examples of what other people have accomplished with a lawsuit? I've read some cases where the discriminators are instructed to take action to stop the discrimination. I also read some cases where they issued "letters of apology" to the wronged ones. Besides these results, what else can one get? What would you suggest?

 

[cbg]

NO. I don't know how to make it any more clear. What other people may have gotten has NOTHING to do with what you may or may not get.

I'm not yelling at you, but you seem to be operating under the impression that there is a standard formula, and you can punch in the numbers and get a relatively standard answer. That is not the case. Every case has to stand or fall on its own merits; every case is different. There is NO POSSIBLE WAY we can give you any kind of guess what your case may or may not be worth.

I understand why you want the information, but it would be unbelievably irresponsible of anyone here to make any attempt at giving you what you're looking for based solely on what you have posted. If you want a number, you are going to HAVE to talk to a local attorney. There is no other way to get what you are looking for.

 

[Maddy32]

Excuse me? You say you dont know how to make it more clear?

Now I feel completely confused. You are contradicting yourself.

In your first post, you stated that you could not give me estimates of the type of compensation because you didnt' know:
a) what your offense was or how it compares to others who were similarly situated.
b) What you might have lost in terms of wages and benefits.
c) what are the resources of your company.
d) what kinds of awards have been granted in similar situations in your region of the country.

So I gave you all the answers to your questions, and now you tell me that you can't make it any more clear?? You're contradicting yourself! You are also making it appear as if I were stupid for answering the questions you asked and expecting a response from you. Sneak!

Are you sure you have enough knowledge to give advice?

 

[JETX]

You have been told REPEATEDLY that you have no case. You have also been told repeatedly that even before you could bring a claim (if you had one), you would need the 'permission' of the EEOC.

Yet, you continue to argue about it... and whine because no one has a crystal ball to tell you how large your 'lottery' winnings might be if you even had a case.
Quit being a crap head and learn from the very knowledgeable people here. Your insulting them is NOT going to get you any different answers.... and may very likely get you no additional answers at all!!

Bottom line... in my opinion (and I have LOTS more experience in this than you do!), you have absolutely NO case against your employer. Now, if you feel you do, don't whine about it here. Do what you have been told to do.... talk with the EEOC.

 

[Maddy32]

Ironic, that you assure me I have no case when you haven't heard a single detail of my story. I barely asked about compensatory damages of sex discrimination, and you reply saying I have no case? hahaha. How more ridiculous can you get? I won't even waste my time replying to the rest of your babbling. It's sheer nonsense.

 

[cbg]

Now who's being contradictory?

You tell me, correctly, that you haven't provided a single detail of your case, and yet you claim that you have answered all my questions? Which, by the way, were not questions; they were examples of the factors we would have to know before anyone could even make a guess at the value of your case.

No one can make a guess at the value of your claim because you tell us, it's LIKE the case in this link. That tells us NOTHING.

Yes, I am plenty qualified to give advice. But you do not seem to understand the advice I am giving you, so I will state it very plainly.

TALK TO A LOCAL ATTORNEY.

In order to get ALL the details we would need to even make a GUESS at the value of your claim (and that's all it would be - a GUESS) we'd have to play 20 questions, and I don't have the time or the inclination to do that in this kind of forum.

You obviously have a totally erroneous idea as to how the awards of a claim are determined, and you refuse to accept that IT IS NOT POSSIBLE for us to give you any numbers, so it's a waste of my time, your time, and everyone else's time for any further discussion.

 

[JETX]

"Ironic, that you assure me I have no case when you haven't heard a single detail of my story."
*** Are you a total idiot, or just occasionally. You DID spout enough vague details to allow a reasonable person to determine as I have. You said: "I was terminated because of "inappropriate" behavior at work. My behavior was very light in comparison with my male coworkers, but I was given harsher treatment. Guys get away with so much, but we females always get punished for insignificant things. It happens all the time here with most female workers.
I know I might have a case of sex discrimination."

So, if you KNOW you have a case of sex discrimination.... and have been told that you have to have the 'permission' of the EEOC to pursue a claim, why the hell are you still here?? Why aren't you down at your local EEOC office right now???

Oh, thats right..... you are wanting to know:
"I just want to know whether a lawsuit is worth it"
*** No one here can answer that for you.... as it is entirely subjective. If you are unemployed and have nothing else to do with your time, and money is no object (to pay attorney fees and costs), go for it.

"depending on how much I might get"
*** I predict you will somewhere between $1.85 and $345.23 million. Close enough for you??

"and what will be the results if I pursue it."
*** I predict the results you will get are the same as you have gotten so far in this thread. A lot of rolled eyes, comments like 'What kind of drugs is she on?", and a lot of laughter. I also predict you will wear out 4 pairs of shoes walking in and out of attorney offices trying to find ANYONE that would even think you have a slim shadow of a case (and even then probably just for the $$). I further predict that if you get an attorney to represent your case (retainer, NOT contingent fee), you will have to spend in excess of $10,000 trying to even get into court. Finally, if it makes it this far (slim to none), you will not win any claim against your former employer..... and will very likely get stuck paying THEIR legal fees for a frivolous filing.

But what the heck.... have fun anyway.

 

[Maddy32]

To "cbg"

"But you do not seem to understand the advice I am giving you, so I will state it very plainly. TALK TO A LOCAL ATTORNEY."

If that was the advice you meant to give from the start, why didn't you get to the point and stated that in your very first post? All you did is you wasted my time by making me answer your ridiculous questions. In fact, if that was your main advice, you shouldn't have bothered to post at all in the first place. Going to a local attorney is what MOST people do when they have a case. I came to this forum in order to to hear whether other people have been in my situation, and what their results have been. You offer nothing of value to my situation whatsoever. You are giving purely basic information that only someone stupid would not know "Go to your local attorney", Oh really? I didn't know local attorneys could help! Thank you, couldn't have done it without you!!

And now to "JETX":

Are you simply a complete RETARD, or do you pretend to be one?
"You DID spout enough vague details to allow a reasonable person to determine as I have"
The only details I spouted is that my behavior is light in comparison with male behaviors and I was treated harsher. Based on that, you determine I do NOT have a case of sex discrimination? You are what I would call the epitome of stupidity. It's like if I said: "I am being treated harshly because I am black" and you conclude: "based on your vague statement, you don't have a case" hahaha. You crack me the hell up.

On top of everything, you are completely WRONG in most of what you say. Most cases of discrimination are taken on a contingency basis, whether you like it or not, whether it infuriates you or not. Try to prove otherwise. I made a search of 'sex discrimination' and 'contingency basis' and you'll guess I retrieved hundreds of law offices. I won't even have to walk a step to find a lawyer, turd. You're just a brainless idiot who spouts wrong information for the sake of letting out your rage over your need to be "right." You're not right. You obviously don't know crap about law or how lawyers work. What a load of bs you wrote. If I file a suit, I won't spend a cent. How many lawyers do you think I have found that state "no fee unless you win"? Most of them.
Now go back to your legal sandbox and play with your toys.