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- Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- - SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
Mercer Legal Group represents Los Angeles and California employees in workplace discrimination claims under FEHA, Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA. Free, confidential case review with a senior attorney.
Workplace discrimination means an employer treats you worse because of who you are rather than how you work. Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA, Gov. Code §12940), it is illegal to base hiring, pay, promotion, discipline, or firing decisions on a protected trait such as race, sex, age 40 or older, disability, religion, or national origin. Our attorneys handle these claims and the deadlines that decide whether you keep them.
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Government Code section 12940, makes it unlawful for an employer to treat an employee or applicant worse because of a protected characteristic. FEHA applies to employers with five or more employees and covers more categories than federal law. The protected characteristics include:
Federal Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) may also apply, depending on the facts. FEHA is often broader than federal law: it reaches smaller employers and gives employees longer to file.
Most California discrimination claims are filed first with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). Federal Title VII claims go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). An attorney can review the facts and explain which statutes fit 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.
A successful discrimination claim can recover the pay and benefits you lost, damages for emotional harm, and, under FEHA (Gov. Code §12965(b)), your attorney’s fees and costs. Available remedies may include:
FEHA sets no dollar cap on compensatory or punitive damages. Federal Title VII does: it limits combined compensatory and punitive damages on a sliding scale by employer size, from $50,000 to $300,000. For many California employees, that gap is a reason to bring the claim under FEHA.
Every case is different, and no attorney can guarantee a specific outcome.
Build your record and watch the clock. Note when the treatment started and who was involved, save reviews, emails, and write-ups, and report the conduct in writing if it is safe. Talk to an attorney before signing severance. Under FEHA, you generally have three years from the discriminatory act to file with the California Civil Rights Department (Gov. Code §12960(e)).
Our California discrimination attorneys review the facts, explain your options under FEHA, Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA, 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.
If you’re working through a workplace discrimination claim 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.
California gives discrimination plaintiffs more room than federal law. Under FEHA, California courts allow proof through circumstantial evidence — pattern, comparators, pretext, and timing. You don’t need a direct comment about race, gender, age, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy. Most Los Angeles cases turn on the comparator record — how similarly situated coworkers were treated for the same conduct.
Often yes, when the differential treatment is tied to a protected characteristic. California courts examine whether the comparator employees were “similarly situated” — same supervisor, same role, comparable conduct, comparable performance — and whether the difference in treatment lines up with a protected category. Los Angeles HR records are typically detailed enough to surface these patterns.
Possibly. California courts under FEHA allow discrimination claims based on denied promotions when the employer’s stated reason does not hold up against the comparator evidence — when a less-qualified candidate outside the protected class was selected, or when the selection criteria shifted after the protected employee applied. Los Angeles promotion-denial cases often turn on documented qualifications vs. the selected candidate.
It can be. California treats close temporal proximity between a protected complaint and an adverse action as strong evidence of retaliation under FEHA. The employer must show by documented evidence — pre-complaint performance issues, contemporaneous discipline — that the termination would have happened regardless. Los Angeles juries look hard at performance records that suddenly appear after a complaint.
For FEHA claims, you have three years from the discriminatory act to file with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), then one year to file suit after the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice. The three-year window comes from AB 9, codified at Government Code section 12960(e), which extended the old one-year deadline. Federal Title VII claims run on shorter EEOC deadlines, often 300 days in California because California is a “deferral” state. For most California workplace discrimination claims, FEHA gives the longer filing window and broader coverage.
Discrimination at work doesn’t have to define your career. If you believe you’ve been singled out, demoted, harassed, or fired because of a protected characteristic, contact Mercer Legal Group for a free, confidential case review with a senior attorney.
