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- Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- - SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
Mercer Legal Group represents California employees denied protected family or medical leave, or punished for taking it, under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the federal FMLA. Free, confidential case review with a senior attorney.
Taking time off for your own serious health condition, a new child, or a family member’s illness shouldn’t cost you your job. When an employer denies leave, mishandles it, or retaliates, the damage is immediate. Our attorneys focus on CFRA, the FMLA, and the deadlines that decide whether your claim survives.
A leave-rights lawyer can explain what California requires when you need protected time off, and what your employer can and cannot do while you’re out. We represent employees denied eligible leave, demoted or replaced after returning, or fired for requesting leave they were entitled to take.
The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in a 12-month period for their own serious health condition, to bond with a new child, or to care for a family member. CFRA now covers employers with five or more employees and defines “family member” more broadly than the federal FMLA — it includes parents-in-law, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings. The FMLA runs alongside CFRA and can extend protection, including for pregnancy disability.
California recognizes two distinct claims: interference, when an employer denies or discourages leave you were entitled to, and retaliation, when it punishes you for taking it. Most CFRA claims are filed with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). An attorney can review the facts and explain which fits your case.
Mercer Legal Group reviews employment law claims carefully, explains available options, and pursues appropriate remedies when the facts and law support them. Every case is different, and no attorney can guarantee a specific result.
Where the facts support a CFRA or FMLA claim, available remedies may include:
Every case is different, and no attorney can guarantee a specific outcome.
Our California employment attorneys review the facts, explain your options under CFRA and the FMLA, and pursue available remedies when the facts support them. From the first call, you have a senior attorney reading the file — not an intake clerk reading a script. Cases are handled on a contingency-fee basis, with no upfront cost to bring a claim.
Mercer Legal Group focuses on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and whistleblower claims tied to a protected characteristic or protected activity, plus the employment-agreement matters that surround them. We generally do not handle standalone wage-and-hour disputes, unpaid commission claims, Kaiser Permanente matters, public agency claims, or ordinary workplace disputes with no protected legal issue.
If you’re working through a leave dispute for the first time, the procedural questions matter as much as the legal ones. Below are the questions clients ask us most, with the kind of plain-English answers a senior attorney would give you on a first call.
Yes. CFRA is job-protected leave. When you return within your entitlement, your employer generally has to restore you to the same position or an equivalent one, with the same pay, benefits, and conditions. Replacing you and offering a lesser role can be CFRA interference, a common dispute in California workplaces.
Likely. Since 2021, CFRA covers California employers with five or more employees, far smaller than the federal FMLA’s 50-employee threshold. Many California workers who don’t qualify for FMLA still have full CFRA leave rights.
Under CFRA, yes. California’s definition of “family member” is broader than the FMLA’s. It includes parents, children, spouses, domestic partners, parents-in-law, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings. The FMLA does not cover several of those relationships.
It can be. California separates interference, denying or discouraging leave, from retaliation, punishing you for taking it. Discipline, a demotion, or a termination that follows protected leave can support a retaliation claim, and California juries pay close attention when the timing is close and the employer’s reasons shift.
For CFRA claims, three years from the violation to file with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), then one year after the right-to-sue notice. Federal FMLA claims run on a different, often shorter clock. Wherever you are in California, CFRA usually gives the longer window and broader coverage.
Protected leave is a right, not a favor. If your employer denied eligible leave, demoted you after you returned, or fired you for taking it, contact Mercer Legal Group for a free, confidential case review with a senior attorney.
