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Fired, harassed, retaliated against, or short-paid by an Oxnard employer that buried the dispute in a forced arbitration clause. The firm represents Ventura County workers when the case needs to end in a settlement check, not a shrug.
NYU Law & NYU Stern · Skadden & Latham alumni · No-charge consultation · Employees only, contingency fee
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An Oxnard employee fired, harassed, or short-paid by a California employer that tried to bury the claim under a mandatory arbitration clause still has a path to a courtroom. Labor Code section 432.6, enacted by AB 51, makes it unlawful for a California employer to require — as a condition of employment — that the worker waive FEHA or Labor Code rights through forced pre-dispute arbitration. The Ninth Circuit’s 2023 Bonta v. Chamber of Commerce decision restored that prohibition, and California courts have since invalidated arbitration agreements that were unconscionable on their face, that buried the carve-outs in the fine print, or that the employer never countersigned. Where the clause does survive a motion to compel, the firm pushes the case in arbitration with the same discovery and deposition discipline it brings to the courtroom. Simon Moshkovich — NYU Law, former Skadden and Latham — reads every Oxnard intake himself.
Mercer Legal Group is a California employment law firm that represents workers and only workers. The firm screens cases against one standard: do the facts and the documents support a verdict? When the answer is yes, the matter draws a senior attorney for its full life. When the answer is no, the firm says so the same day rather than running up the clock. Oxnard and Ventura County intakes get a direct, honest read.
California protects workers well past the federal floor, and the Oxnard employers we sue — Ventura County strawberry, lemon, and avocado growers, Port of Hueneme freight and cold-chain operators, Haas Automation and Procter & Gamble manufacturing lines, St. John’s Regional and Community Memorial-affiliated medical groups, Channel Islands Harbor hospitality, and the Camarillo-Ventura tech corridor — know it. An employer cannot legally fire, demote, cut the hours of, or push out a worker for reporting harassment or discrimination, whether aimed at the worker or a coworker. Protected characteristics include race, sex, age, pregnancy, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and military status. Asking for a reasonable disability or pregnancy accommodation is protected. Taking and returning from protected medical or family leave is protected. Reporting unsafe working conditions, wage theft, or anything reasonably believed to be illegal is protected. Refusing to participate in fraud, false billing, or a cover-up is protected. Filing a workers’ comp claim is protected. The employer also cannot steal wages — unpaid overtime, missed meal and rest breaks, off-the-clock work, withheld tips, or miscounted hours all carry their own statutory penalties under the Labor Code.
A successful Oxnard employment case can recover the wages and benefits lost from the day the employer crossed the line through judgment. Front pay covers future lost earnings when the firing or forced exit set the worker’s career back. FEHA emotional-distress damages are uncapped under California law. Unpaid wages, overtime, and Labor Code penalties stack on top of the FEHA recovery. Attorneys’ fees are paid by the former employer, not deducted from the worker’s recovery. Punitive damages apply where the employer’s conduct was malicious, fraudulent, or oppressive. The firm works on contingency — the worker pays nothing out of pocket and pays only if the case wins. The clock matters. Some California employment claims run as short as one year; most expire within three. Documents disappear, witnesses move on, and leverage walks out the door if filing is delayed. A severance agreement with a non-disclosure attached should not be signed before a legal call — California’s Silenced No More Act voids many such NDAs when harassment, discrimination, or retaliation are part of the underlying facts.
Free case review for Oxnard workers. Honest read on whether the claim has a real path to a verdict in Ventura County.
The firm does not negotiate from hope. It negotiates from evidence. The first step is preserving the worker’s record — emails, texts, Slack and Teams archives, pay stubs, schedules, performance reviews, witness statements — before anything quietly disappears. The second step is the agency filing: CRD, EEOC, or the California Labor Commissioner, depending on the claim mix, so the statute of limitations stops running. Once the matter is in litigation, the firm pulls the employer’s side of the file: HR records, decision-maker emails, prior complaints against the same supervisor, payroll history, pattern evidence. Then comes the deposition plan — the people who made the decision are put on the record, and their version of events tends not to survive contact with their own internal documents. Strong cases settle on strong terms. When they don’t, the case goes to a Ventura County jury. Either route is built on the file, not on hope.
Most plaintiff-side employment firms are built for volume — hundreds of open cases, rotating associates, settlement-by-assembly-line. That model works for the firm. It works less well for the worker whose career and reputation are on the line. The firm is built the other way: fewer cases, Simon Moshkovich reading every intake personally, the same senior attorney negotiating, drafting, and — if it goes that far — trying the case. No defense-side clients creating quiet conflicts. And a real filter on the front end: if the firm doesn’t think an Oxnard worker can win a particular case, the firm says so on the call. When the yes does come, it is earned.
A few resolutions from California employment matters the firm has handled. Every Oxnard case has its own facts — past results don’t guarantee future outcomes.
A long-tenured analyst was replaced by a hire more than twenty years younger weeks after an internal reorganization. Internal emails referring to the team’s need to “get younger” were produced in discovery. The case resolved for substantial front pay, back pay, and attorneys’ fees.
An employee reported persistent inappropriate conduct by a senior colleague. Internal complaints were documented but not acted on, and the employee was terminated under a pretextual performance rationale. The matter resolved after mediation with a confidential payment.
A senior employee at a Southern California logistics operation was fired weeks after raising internal concerns about wage violations. In discovery, the employer’s performance-based excuse collapsed under its own HR records. The case settled confidentially in the seven figures before trial.
Call (818) 538-3458 or send a note through the contact form. Two or three sentences on what happened — termination, harassment, wage issue, retaliation — is enough to start. Confidentiality applies whether or not the firm ends up representing you.
Simon or a senior attorney works the facts on the call and gives a direct read: viable claim or not, the realistic damages number, the defense the Oxnard employer is most likely to raise. No pitch. No upsell.
If the case has merit, the firm tells you exactly what to preserve — email, text threads, performance reviews, witness contact information — and what to stop doing immediately. Where the shortest applicable deadline is close, the agency filing goes out the same week.
Once the record is built, the choice is yours: accept the best settlement the file will support, or take the case to trial in Ventura County. The firm’s job is to make sure either path rests on the documents, not on pressure.
Free, confidential review. Every Oxnard intake lands on Simon Moshkovich’s desk for a direct yes-or-no read.
