If you live and work locally in Greensboro, the laws you and your employer must abide by during and after employment are governed by North Carolina. North Carolina's legal code considers employment in most cases as being "at-will." What this means is that in general an employer can layoff an employee with or without cause. However, to protect the working men and women of Greensboro as well as North Carolina as a whole, there are exceptions to this rule. If your case meets the requirements of these exceptions you have every right to hire an attorney and face your former employer in court for wrongful termination.
Exceptions to employment being "at-will":
- If you were covered by an employment contract for a defined period or were party to a collective bargaining agreement when you were discharged from work.
- If your employment was ended for reasons that state and/or federal statutes prohibit as grounds for employment termination. These include:
- Age
- Sex
- Religion
- Race
- Disability
- National Origin
- If, by ending your employment, your employer violated public policy that was designed to protect workers or the public. (A couple of examples might be if you filed a worker's compensation claim, or refused to break the law at your employers request and were subsequently fired by your employer as a direct result. These examples are both considered retaliatory termination, and you can take your former employer to court for this.
Some of these claims have time limits in which they must be brought to court, and the use of a well-qualified Greensborough law attorney such as Robertson, Medlin and Bloss will help speed up the process. It really is best not to try and represent yourself in wrongful termination cases due to the complexity of the paperwork, the possibility that you may not know which papers to file, and the eventual possibility of dismissal of your case due to missing deadlines.
Try to get your lawyer in place as soon as you are laid off. No time should be wasted in getting your case filed and in process.
What you can do to prepare for a meeting with your Greensboro lawyer
If you are considering bringing a wrongful termination case against your employer, prepare for your first meeting with you attorney by collecting together the relevant evidence.
Your evidence may include the following items:
- Employment contracts
- Employee handbooks
- Trade secret agreements
- Covenants not to compete
- Personnel files
- Unemployment compensation papers
- Work evaluations
- Letters of hire
- Letters of termination
- Workers compensation paperwork
- Anything else you have received electronically or in paper form that might be relevant to your case.
As your local Greensboro employment lawyers, we at Robertson, Medlin and Bloss can assist you in preparing and representing your case. Call us as soon as you lose your job and we will further assist in identifying if you have a case against your former employer for wrongful termination.
