San Francisco 
Wrongful Termination Attorney

Losing a job is never easy, but when you lose your job because your employer did not respect your rights, or as a result of retaliation for speaking out about legitimate concerns regarding your work environment, the experience can be gut-wrenching. You have the right to a safe work environment that is free from discrimination, and you have the right to speak up for yourself and for coworkers who are being treated unfairly without being fired for it. If you suspect your termination was based on discrimination, retaliation, or a violation of public policy, know that you have the right to demand answers.

Firings that lead to a wrongful termination case commonly follow:

• A complaint about discrimination or harassment at work
• A report of a safety problem to a supervisor or a government agency
• A complaint about unpaid wages, overtime, or commissions
• A request for medical, pregnancy, or family leave
• A refusal to take part in something illegal

If you were wrongfully terminated, our employment law firm is prepared to work to achieve the best possible outcome for your case. Jeremy Pasternak has represented employees throughout California for more than 20 years from offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer every year since 2008. He takes wrongful termination cases through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and trial, consultations are free, and you pay no fee unless we win.

Wrongful termination occurs when an employer fires an employee in a way that violates an employment contract, public policy, or anti-discrimination laws. Although California is an at-will employment state under Labor Code section 2922, which means that employers can generally terminate employees for any reason or no reason at all, there are exceptions that protect workers from unlawful dismissal.

An employer breaks the law when it:

• Fires an employee based on race, gender, religion, disability, age, or another protected characteristic
• Terminates an employee in retaliation for a legally protected activity, like reporting a safety violation or participating in a discrimination investigation
• Breaches a written or implied employment contract, or fails to follow its own established disciplinary procedures before firing someone

An unfair firing is not always an unlawful one. An employer can let you go for poor performance, a personality conflict with a manager, or a company-wide layoff, and even when the decision feels unjust, those reasons are lawful. A wrongful termination case has to show that the reason behind the firing violated a specific law or public policy, and that is where an experienced employment attorney can evaluate the facts and tell you whether your termination crossed that line.

California law provides four separate legal bases for a wrongful termination case, and a single firing can fit more than one of them. Which basis applies depends on the reason behind the firing, and an experienced employment attorney can determine which of them your termination violated.

• Discrimination or retaliation prohibited by statute. The Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code section 12940) bars an employer from firing you because of a protected characteristic or because you complained about discrimination or harassment. The Labor Code separately bars firing you for a wage complaint (section 98.6), a safety complaint (section 6310), or a report of a legal violation to a government agency or to a supervisor (section 1102.5).
• Violation of public policy. Since Tameny v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (1980), an at-will employee with no contract can sue when the firing violates a fundamental public policy of the state.
• Breach of contract. A written or implied agreement that limits when or how you can be fired.
• Constructive discharge. Working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable employee would resign count as a firing for purposes of a wrongful termination case.

The California Supreme Court recognizes four sources of public policy that support a wrongful termination case:

• You refused to violate a statute, for example by declining to falsify billing records or to drive a vehicle you knew was unsafe
• You performed a statutory obligation, for example by serving on a jury or testifying under a subpoena
• You exercised a constitutional or statutory right or privilege, for example by taking protected medical leave or filing a workers' compensation claim
• You reported a statutory violation for the benefit of the public, for example by reporting a safety hazard to Cal/OSHA

For the policy to qualify, it has to come from a constitution, statute, or regulation, serve the public at large, and have been in place at the time of the firing (Stevenson v. Superior Court, 1997). An employer's internal handbook rules do not qualify, and a dispute over the terms of your own contract belongs in a breach of contract case.

A wrongful termination case in California rests on one of the following grounds, and the evidence you need depends on which one applies to your firing.

Discrimination

California law forbids an employer with five or more employees from firing you because of a protected characteristic. The Fair Employment and Housing Act protects race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age (40 and over), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, reproductive health decisions, and military or veteran status. Since January 1, 2025, FEHA also protects any combination of those characteristics, so a firing that targets you for being, for example, both over 40 and a woman is unlawful even if the employer treats older men and younger women fairly. A workplace discrimination firing also violates federal law when the employer has 15 or more employees (20 for age discrimination).

Retaliation

Employers cannot fire workers for participating in protected activities. A firing is unlawful retaliation when the reason behind it is that you:

• Filed a complaint about discrimination or harassment with HR, the Civil Rights Department, or the EEOC
• Reported illegal conduct to a government agency
• Requested or took FMLA or California Family Rights Act leave
• Participated in a workplace investigation or testified in a coworker's case
• Requested a disability or religious accommodation

A 2024 amendment to the Labor Code helps when the firing came soon after your complaint. If your employer fires you within 90 days of a wage complaint, a whistleblower report, or an equal pay complaint, Labor Code sections 98.6, 1102.5, and 1197.5 create a rebuttable presumption that the firing was retaliation, and the employer has to prove it had a legitimate reason unrelated to your complaint.

Whistleblowing

Labor Code section 1102.5 protects you when you report a violation of a state or federal law, rule, or regulation to a government agency, to a supervisor, or to another employee with authority to investigate or correct the problem. You do not have to be right about the violation; you need reasonable cause to believe one occurred. Reports of environmental, safety, securities, wage, and healthcare violations are covered, and so is refusing to take part in an activity that would break the law. An employer that fires a whistleblower faces reinstatement, back pay, a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation, and your attorney's fees.

Breach of Employment Contract

An employer that fires you in violation of the terms of your employment contract, particularly provisions that set when and how you can be terminated, is liable for wrongful termination. Firing you before the contract term ends or without the notice the contract requires counts as a breach.

A contract does not have to be written. An implied contract can arise from an employee handbook that promises progressive discipline, assurances from a manager that your job was secure, and a long record of raises and promotions, although an at-will clause you signed in an offer letter makes an implied contract harder to prove. Every California employment contract also includes an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, which an employer breaches when it fires you to avoid paying a commission or bonus you had already earned.

Constructive Discharge

Quitting does not end your case if your employer forced the resignation. Constructive discharge occurs when an employer deliberately creates or knowingly allows working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable employee in your position would have no option other than to resign (Turner v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 1994). A single unfair review or a pay cut does not meet the standard, while a series of demotions, harassment, or unsafe assignments that continues after you complain can. Once you prove constructive discharge, the resignation is treated as a firing, and you can pursue the same discrimination, retaliation, or public policy case as an employee who was fired outright.

Both are illegal under California law, but each one gets proven differently, and a resignation that your employer forced in retaliation for a complaint can support both.

Proving Constructive Dismissal

Constructive dismissal, also called constructive discharge, comes from California common law (CACI No. 2510) and applies when an employer forces you to resign by creating working conditions so intolerable that you feel resignation is your only option. To prove it, you have to show that a reasonable employee in your position would have felt compelled to quit, and that your employer intended to force the resignation or knew about the conditions and let them continue. Constructive discharge on its own is not a case; it converts your resignation into a firing, and you still have to prove the firing was unlawful for one of the reasons a wrongful termination case requires, like discrimination or retaliation.

Proving Retaliatory Firing

Retaliatory firing is prohibited under Labor Code section 1102.5, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It occurs when an employer terminates you for engaging in protected activity, which violates both California and federal law.

Protected activity covers the following, and the list is representative:

• Reporting discrimination or harassment
• Participating in a workplace investigation
• Requesting a disability or religious accommodation
• Taking FMLA or CFRA protected leave
• Raising concerns about unpaid wages or overtime

Labor Code section 1102.5 also forbids an employer, or anyone acting for it, from:

• Adopting a rule or policy that prevents you from disclosing information to a government agency, law enforcement, or a coworker with authority to investigate
• Preventing you from testifying or providing information to a public body investigating unlawful conduct
• Taking adverse action against you for a disclosure, or because it believes you may make one
• Taking adverse action against you for refusing to take part in an illegal activity

To prove retaliation, you show three things:

• Your conduct was protected under Labor Code section 1102.5, FEHA, or Title VII
• Your employer took adverse action against you, like firing, demotion, or a cut in hours
• A causal connection existed between your conduct and the action

Labor Code section 1102.6 sets the burden of proof in your favor. You have to show by a preponderance of the evidence that your protected activity was a contributing factor in the firing, and the employer then has to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have fired you anyway for a legitimate reason (Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, Inc., 2022). A firing within 90 days of a wage, whistleblower, or equal pay complaint starts with a presumption of retaliation, and an employer that offers a lawful explanation has to support it with evidence.

Termination shortly after protected conduct is a strong sign of retaliation, and Jeremy Pasternak gathers the emails, performance reviews, and witness accounts that connect the timing to the decision to fire you.

An employer that fires you for a prohibited reason does not usually say so. The termination letter cites performance, restructuring, or a policy violation, and your case depends on whether that stated reason was the true one or a substitute for a reason the law prohibits. Proving a substitute reason, which the law calls pretext, relies on circumstantial evidence, and the following signs are where that evidence usually comes from:

• Different treatment. Coworkers outside your protected group, or coworkers who never complained, kept their jobs after the same mistakes, or received a warning where you received a termination.
• Comments from the decision maker. Remarks about your age, accent, pregnancy, disability, religion, or your complaint itself, made by the manager who fired you or by someone that manager consulted before the decision.
• Missing documentation. No written warning, no performance improvement plan, and a personnel file with years of positive reviews followed by a sudden negative one in the weeks before the firing.
• A changing explanation. The reason you were given in the termination meeting differs from the reason the employer gave the Employment Development Department in response to your unemployment claim, or from what it later tells the Civil Rights Department.
• Your replacement. You were replaced by someone outside your protected group, or your duties went to coworkers who had never complained.
• Skipped procedures. The employee handbook promises progressive discipline, and the employer followed it for others and skipped it for you.
• Timing tied to a disclosure. The firing came within weeks of your telling the employer you were pregnant, requesting an accommodation, or returning from leave.

Your personnel file is the first test of the employer's story. Labor Code section 1198.5 requires an employer to let you inspect and copy your personnel records within 30 calendar days of a written request, and section 226 gives you your payroll records within 21 days. A file that contains no warning before the firing, or a warning dated after it, contradicts a performance explanation.

Jeremy Pasternak investigates the signs together: he requests the personnel file, compares how the employer treated coworkers, and takes the depositions of the managers who made the decision to test whether the stated reason survives questioning under oath.

What If My Employer Fired Me for Taking Protected Leave in California?

Your employer cannot fire you for taking leave protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). You do not have to name either law when you ask for time off; telling your employer the reason for the leave is enough to trigger the protection.

CFRA (Gov. Code section 12945.2) covers employers with five or more employees, and you qualify after 12 months and 1,250 hours of work. It provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in a 12-month period for:

• Your own serious health condition
• Care of a child, parent, spouse, domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, parent-in-law, or a designated person you name
• Bonding with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement
• A qualifying exigency related to a family member's military service

You are entitled to return to the same or a comparable position. Pregnancy disability leave (Gov. Code section 12945) adds up to four months for a pregnancy-related disability at employers with five or more employees, separate from CFRA bonding leave, so a new mother can take both.

A firing for taking or requesting protected leave supports a FEHA case and a public policy case, even when you had not yet started the leave. An employer can still eliminate your position during leave for an unrelated reason, like a layoff that would have reached you anyway, but it has to prove that reason. Paid Family Leave pays partial wages while you are out and does not protect your job. If you were fired around a pregnancy, family, or medical leave, Jeremy Pasternak reviews the leave request, the employer's response, and the timing of the termination to establish the connection between the two.

The California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act (Labor Code sections 1400-1408) protects employees when an employer cuts a large part of its workforce at once. An employer that has employed 75 or more people in the past 12 months has to give 60 days' written notice to affected employees, their representatives, and the state before:

• A mass layoff of 50 or more employees within a 30-day period
• A relocation of operations 100 miles or more away
• A closure of all or substantially all of the operations at the site

Since January 1, 2026, the notice also has to state whether the employer will coordinate Rapid Response reemployment services through the local workforce development board and has to include information about CalFresh food benefits.

Penalties for a Missing or Late WARN Notice

An employer that skips or shortens the notice owes each affected employee up to 60 days of back pay and benefits, plus a civil penalty of up to $500 a day, which the employer avoids only by paying the employees in full within three weeks of the layoff.

A Layoff That Hides a Wrongful Termination

WARN governs the notice, not the reason for the layoff, so a WARN violation is a separate case from wrongful termination and the two can be brought together. A layoff that reaches only you, or only the employees who complained or took leave, raises the question of whether the layoff was a pretext for a firing the law prohibits, and Jeremy Pasternak examines who was selected and why before treating a layoff as lawful.

State and federal laws give you the following rights at work, and the list is representative. Being fired for exercising any of them can support a wrongful termination case.

• The right to be paid for the hours you worked and the wages you earned. If you were fired for complaining that you did not receive overtime pay, were not paid for all of your hours, or were not paid commissions or bonuses you earned, Labor Code section 98.6 makes the firing unlawful retaliation.
• The right to complain about safety and to refuse unsafe work. Labor Code section 6310 protects a complaint about unsafe conditions to your employer or Cal/OSHA, and section 6311 protects you when you refuse to perform work that would violate a safety standard and create an obvious hazard of death or serious injury.
• The right to speak out against discrimination. Whether you complained that you were discriminated against or spoke out against discrimination you witnessed in the workplace, Gov. Code section 12940(h) protects your complaint.
• The right to be free from harassment in the workplace. The same section protects your right to complain about workplace harassment, and a firing in response is retaliation you can sue over.
• The right to ask for a reasonable accommodation for your disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act and Gov. Code section 12940(m) grant you the right to ask for a reasonable accommodation of your disability without fear of retaliation.
• The right to discuss your pay and working conditions. Labor Code sections 232 and 232.5 bar an employer from firing you for disclosing your wages or talking about working conditions with coworkers.
• The right to skip employer meetings about religion or politics. Since January 1, 2025, Labor Code section 1137 bars an employer from firing or disciplining you for declining to attend a meeting where the employer shares its opinion on religious or political topics, including whether to join a union.
• The right to your own politics and your own time. Labor Code sections 1101 and 1102 bar an employer from controlling your political activity or firing you over it, and section 96(k) covers lost wages when you are fired for lawful conduct on your own time away from work.

Even if you are in the process of being terminated or suspect that you are about to be terminated, do not hesitate to contact a wrongful termination attorney in San Francisco to discuss your rights and options.

To win a wrongful termination case, you generally have to prove four things, which track the jury instruction a judge reads at trial (CACI No. 2430):

• The defendant employed you
• The employer fired you, or forced you to resign through constructive discharge
• An unlawful reason, whether discrimination, retaliation, a public policy violation, or a contract breach, was a substantial motivating reason for the firing
• The firing caused you harm

A substantial motivating reason does not have to be the only reason. An employer that fired you for a mix of lawful and unlawful reasons still loses if the unlawful reason was a substantial factor in the decision, and in a whistleblower case the standard drops further to a contributing factor.

Documentation proves the third element. Emails and text messages, performance reviews, your personnel file, the termination letter, witness statements from coworkers, and the employer's own written policies each show whether the stated reason for the firing matches what the employer did. Harm, the fourth element, covers the wages and benefits you lost after the firing and the emotional distress the firing caused.

Statute of Limitations for Wrongful Termination Cases

The deadline for a wrongful termination case depends on which law the firing violated, and one firing can carry several deadlines at once. The most common ones are:

A FEHA case cannot go to court until the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, and in employment cases you can request that notice immediately without waiting for an investigation, which is what an attorney does when the case is ready to be filed. The one-year period after the notice is paused during mandatory or voluntary dispute resolution, and since January 1, 2026, during a timely appeal of a CRD decision to close your complaint. A charge filed with the EEOC is treated as filed with the CRD as well, and the reverse, so one filing preserves both the state and federal case.

Circumstances can extend or shorten a deadline. The CRD period extends by up to 90 days if you learned the facts behind the firing after it happened, and a written agreement with the employer to extend the deadline pauses it. Jeremy Pasternak calculates every deadline that applies to a firing at the first consultation, because a case with three possible bases can lose one of them a year before the others expire.

Damages Available for Wrongful Termination in California

Compensation in a California wrongful termination case starts with the pay you lost. Back pay covers the wages, raises, and overtime you would have earned from the firing through the verdict, and front pay covers what you would have earned going forward when returning to the job is not workable. Both are reduced by what you earned, or could have earned with reasonable effort, in a comparable job, and the employer has to prove that comparable work was available and that you did not pursue it.

Beyond lost pay, you can recover:

• Lost benefits. Health insurance premiums you paid out of pocket, the employer's 401(k) match, and stock or bonuses that would have vested had you stayed.
• Job search costs. Recruiter fees, retraining, and classes you paid for to find comparable work.
• Emotional distress. Compensation for the anxiety, depression, humiliation, and damage to your reputation the firing caused, proven through your own testimony, medical and therapy records, and the accounts of family and friends who saw the change in you.
• Punitive damages. Available under Civil Code section 3294 when you prove by clear and convincing evidence that an officer, director, or managing agent acted with oppression, fraud, or malice, or knew about the conduct and approved it.
• Attorney's fees and costs. FEHA (Gov. Code section 12965(c)(6)) and Labor Code section 1102.5 both require the employer to pay a winning employee's attorney's fees and litigation costs.
• Reinstatement. A court order returning you to your former position, which is available and uncommon, since the working relationship has usually broken down by the time a case ends.
• Injunctive relief. A court order requiring the employer to change the policy or practice behind the firing so no other employee goes through the same thing.

FEHA places no cap on compensatory or punitive damages. Title VII caps combined compensatory and punitive damages between $50,000 and $300,000 depending on the size of the employer, which is why a California employee's recovery usually comes through the state case.

Your final paycheck is separate from all of the above. Labor Code section 201 makes every wage you have earned, including accrued vacation, due on the day you are fired, and an employer that pays late owes a penalty of a full day's wages for each day of delay, up to 30 days (Labor Code section 203).

The weeks after a firing are when a case gets built or damaged, and the damage usually comes from one of the following:

• Not gathering evidence. Emails, performance reviews, the employee handbook, the termination letter, and the names of coworkers who saw what happened are the proof of your case, and they are easier to collect in the first weeks than a year later.
• Waiting too long. The shortest deadline that applies to a wrongful termination case is one year, and the CRD, EEOC, and Labor Commissioner deadlines each count separately.
• Alleging every possible ground. A complaint that alleges age, race, disability, and retaliation all at once, with proof of one, reads as a grievance instead of a case. An attorney narrows the case to the grounds the evidence supports.
• Discussing the case publicly or on social media. Posts about your employer or the firing are discoverable, and defense attorneys read them aloud at your deposition.
• Taking confidential company documents. You can keep what you lawfully received in the course of your job, like your own emails, reviews, and pay stubs. Copying customer lists, source code, or files marked confidential gives the employer a lawsuit of its own against you and a lawful after-the-fact reason for the firing.
• Signing agreements without review. A severance agreement or release ends your case the moment you sign it.
• Acting without representation. Employers respond to a demand from an attorney differently than to a letter from a former employee, and the CRD and EEOC processes each have procedural steps that determine whether the case survives.
• Ignoring your employment contract. Offer letters, contracts, arbitration agreements, and handbooks set the terms the firing has to be measured against, and an arbitration clause you signed at hiring changes where the case gets heard.

Severance Agreements After a Termination

An employer that offers severance in exchange for a release of your right to sue has to follow Gov. Code section 12964.5. The offer has to tell you in writing that you have the right to consult an attorney, and it has to give you at least five business days to do so. The agreement cannot bar you from talking about unlawful conduct at work, including harassment, discrimination, or retaliation, and a clause that bars the employer from ever rehiring you is void in the settlement of an employment dispute (Code of Civil Procedure section 1002.5).

A severance offer is the employer's first offer, and the amount and the terms can be negotiated. Jeremy Pasternak reviews severance offers against the value of the case they would release, and negotiates severance and executive separation agreements for employees at every level.

What the Law Offices of Jeremy Pasternak Can Do for You

Losing your job because of discrimination, retaliation, or an employer that ignored the law is devastating, and the Law Offices of Jeremy Pasternak is committed to getting you the answers and the accountability you deserve. Jeremy Pasternak has represented employees in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and throughout California for more than 20 years, has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer every year since 2008, and represents wrongfully fired employees from offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

From the first consultation through the end of the case, he will:

• Evaluate every ground at the first meeting. He reviews your protected class, any protected activity, your contract terms, and the timing of the firing, and calculates each deadline that applies before any of them passes.
• Build the record. He requests your personnel and payroll records, interviews the coworkers who saw what happened, and takes the depositions of the managers who made the decision.
• Meet every filing requirement. Wrongful termination cases come with agency complaints, deadlines, and procedural steps that vary with the grounds for the case, and he sees that each one is met so the case reaches court or arbitration intact.
• Negotiate with your employer's attorneys. He negotiates severance and settlement from the value of the case, and takes the case to trial when the offer does not match it.
• Represent you through every stage. Filing, discovery, mediation, arbitration, and trial, with a record of results in wrongful termination cases against employers of every size.
• Keep you informed. A wrongful termination case can take a year or more, and you will know where yours stands at each step.

Consultations are free and confidential, and you pay no fee unless we win. If you were fired in San Francisco or anywhere in California and suspect the reason was unlawful, call (415) 693-0300 in San Francisco or (213) 797-5823 in Los Angeles, or use the contact form to schedule your consultation.

If you are meeting with one of our wrongful termination lawyers for a consultation, bring as many of the following items as you can, to help us better understand your situation and evaluate your case:

• All relevant employment documents. Be sure to bring your employment contract (if there is one), your offer letter, performance reviews, disciplinary records, and any other documents related to your employment.
• Evidence of discrimination or retaliation. Bring any evidence that supports your wrongful termination or retaliation case, including emails, text messages, or recordings.
• Termination letter. If your employer issued a termination letter or any other documentation, bring it to the consultation.
• Pay stubs or other financial documents. Bring copies of your pay stubs, tax returns, and other relevant financial documents. Your lawyer could use this documentation to calculate the damages your employer owes you.
• Witness contact information. If witnesses support your case, give the lawyer their contact information.
• A written timeline. A dated list of what happened, starting before the first sign of trouble, since a retaliation case gets measured by the time between your protected activity and the firing.
• Any severance agreement. If your employer offered severance in exchange for a release, bring the agreement and note the date it has to be signed by.
• Your unemployment paperwork. Anything the employer sent the Employment Development Department in response to your unemployment application states the employer's reason for the firing in writing.
• A list of questions. If you have questions, it is a good idea to prepare a list to bring to the consultation so you get answers about your rights while you are there.