What to Do Before Taking Your Employer to Court

Employees have legal rights that their employers must uphold. Some workers will feel that their rights have been ignored; this could happen through discrimination, harassment, or another form of mistreatment. 

When this happens, it’s only normal to want to act and resolve these issues, and sometimes court action is required. You should not suffer silently the mistreatment at work. Rather, you should take proper actions to ensure that your employer cannot harass you in any way.

But what do you do before moving ahead with legal assistance? Litigating against your former employer is a serious action, and you must be sufficiently prepared for what it demands. 

If you are considering taking your employer to court, you need to know the requirements of filing a workplace harassment case. In this article, we have outlined three of the most important steps to consider before taking your employer to court.

When Should You Take Your Employer to Court

It is important to know when you can take your employer to court before you file a case. If you think that your employer is mistreating you or discriminating against you based on any racial or political aspects, you can try some casual options to mitigate the issue.

However, if you have already tried to make things right, but the situation at work is still the same, then you can consider taking your employer to court.

Here are 5 workplace situations when you can file a court case against your employer for workplace mistreatment.

1. Harassment — If your employer harasses you at work, you can file a workplace harassment case against them. However, to justify your claims, you will need solid proof and a potential lawyer to fight your case.
2. Workplace Injury — When you suffer any workplace injury due to the negligence of the employer or poor organizational maintenance, you can take your employer to court. Moreover, you can claim compensation for your personal injuries.
3. Unfair Dismissal — If your employer dismisses you from your job without a valid reason, you can file a case against them. Also, you can highlight the mistreatment and claim compensation for the unfair dismissal.
4. Discrimination — When you face any kind of racial, caste, cultural, or disability discrimination at work, you can file for a case. As it is illegal to discriminate against someone based on these aspects, you can take your employer to court.

Keep a Record of Everything

Documenting what you are experiencing is vital. This is one of the best ways to protect yourself when you are experiencing a hostile work environment or discrimination from your employer. 

Moreover, you must keep a note of the events or incidents that occur, including the date, setting, and time of the incident, as well as those who are present. Later on, these individuals might be able to back up your claims at a later date if they witnessed the events.

However, it is also worthwhile to ask those who witnessed the incidents to make a note of what happened. They should write down what they heard and saw during the event, and these statements should be dated and signed. 

To further support your accusations, you should gather relevant documents. Additionally, it would be beneficial to collect the company policies, emails and other correspondence, employee handbooks, and so on. 

The documents you collect should only be the ones you can access. So, refrain from taking confidential documents. Moreover, collecting confidential information could further compromise your potential legal case, even if it relates to your dispute with your employer.

Speak to Your Employer

When you first begin to notice issues occurring between yourself and your employer, you should speak with them. Many businesses try to work with their employees to avoid legal issues. 

Moreover, a peaceful conversation can sometimes resolve problems before things get worse between you and your employer. Of course, this can be difficult if your employer has proven to be openly antagonistic towards you.

If you do plan on talking to your employer before moving forward, then you should understand how to do so professionally and safely. You must know your rights before entering the conversation, and be sure to stick to the facts only. 

This means you must be objective and avoid being overly emotional. The facts you mention should be accurate, so it might be beneficial to have a third party review them, such as a family lawyer.

Moreover, by the end of the conversation, you should be able to come to some sort of agreement on what will happen next. Highlighting the issue might make them stop treating you poorly, and if not, then you can think about legal action.

Consider Legal Action

However, conversation cannot fix all the problems. So, you might need to move ahead with legal assistance. This is particularly important if your employer demotes you from your position or fires you for bringing your grievances to your boss’s attention. 

Before you do this, though, you should look at your motives for doing so, the evidence supporting your claims, and how willing you are. Legal action requires a lot of time and money, so you must be willing to comply with these needs.

You must also ensure that you meet the legal deadlines if you do decide to move forward with legal help. There are often time limits, also known as the statutes of limitations, for filing certain claims; this might range from weeks to years, so you must research this, too.

To conclude, if your employer mistreats you or discriminates against you, then there are certain things you can do. Pursuing legal action is one way to deal with this, but you must be aware of how to do this. This post has outlined three of the key steps to take before you take your employer to court.