Law Library
Employment law, decoded.
Each topic is a short, plain-language summary based on EEOC and federal guidance. Skim in five minutes. Free for everyone.
Wrongful Termination
Most US workers are 'at-will,' but firing someone for an illegal reason — like discrimination, retaliation, or refusing to break the law — is still unlawful.
ReadWorkplace Discrimination
Federal law protects you from being treated worse at work because of who you are — race, sex, age 40+, disability, religion, national origin, pregnancy, or genetic information.
ReadWorkplace Harassment
Harassment becomes illegal when it's based on a protected trait and either creates a hostile work environment or leads to a tangible job change.
ReadRetaliation
It's illegal for an employer to punish you for asserting your workplace rights — including reporting discrimination, requesting accommodations, or participating in an investigation.
ReadFMLA — Family & Medical Leave
Eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for serious health conditions, new children, or qualifying military family needs.
ReadReasonable Accommodations
The ADA and Title VII require employers to provide reasonable adjustments so qualified workers with disabilities or religious needs can do their jobs.
ReadIndependent Contractor Classification
Calling a worker a '1099 contractor' doesn't make them one. Misclassification can cost workers overtime, minimum wage, unemployment, and benefits.
ReadSeverance Agreements & Releases
When your employer offers severance, they're usually asking you to sign away your right to sue — and most workers don't know it.
ReadConstructive Discharge
You don't have to be formally fired to have a wrongful termination claim. If your employer made working conditions so unbearable that a reasonable person would have felt forced to quit, the law may treat your resignation as a firing.
ReadWhat to Do the Day You're Fired
The hours after a termination are legally important. What you say, sign, and save can affect your case.
ReadArbitration Agreements
Most workers signed away their right to a jury trial before their first day of work — buried in an onboarding packet.
ReadEqual Pay & Pay Discrimination
Federal law requires equal pay for equal work — and prohibits paying employees less because of their race, sex, or other protected characteristics.
ReadPregnant Workers Fairness Act
A 2023 law requires employers to accommodate pregnancy-related limitations the same way they would a disability — even when the employee isn't disabled.
ReadLGBTQ+ Protections at Work
Since the Supreme Court's 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, firing someone for being gay or transgender is sex discrimination under federal law.
ReadHostile Work Environment
A hostile work environment isn't just an unpleasant workplace — it's a specific legal claim requiring conduct tied to a protected characteristic that is severe or pervasive enough to change your working conditions.
ReadReligious Discrimination
Employers must accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden — and that burden standard got significantly harder to meet in 2023.
ReadNational Origin & Language Discrimination
Federal law protects workers from discrimination based on where they're from, their accent, their name, or their language — including workplace policies that prohibit speaking a language other than English.
ReadBackground Checks & Hiring Discrimination
Using criminal history, credit checks, or other background screening to make hiring decisions can violate federal law if it disproportionately screens out protected groups — regardless of intent.
ReadHow Employment Lawyers Get Paid
Most employment lawyers work on contingency — meaning you pay nothing unless you win. Many workers with valid claims never pursue them because they assume they can't afford a lawyer.
ReadNon-Compete Agreements
Non-compete clauses restrict where you can work after leaving a job — but their enforceability varies widely by state, and courts and regulators are increasingly skeptical of them.
ReadWhistleblower Protections
Federal law protects workers who report illegal activity, safety violations, or fraud — but the protections depend on what you reported, to whom, and which law covers your industry.
ReadNDAs and Settlement Agreements
Non-disclosure agreements and settlement agreements can limit what you can say — and what you can do legally — for years after you leave. Most workers sign them without fully understanding what they're giving up.
ReadUnemployment Benefits After Wrongful Termination
Being fired — even for a disputed reason — usually doesn't disqualify you from unemployment benefits. Most people who were wrongfully terminated can and should file.
ReadIntersectional Discrimination
Discrimination can target a specific combination of identities — like being a Black woman — even when the same employer wouldn't discriminate against Black men or white women as separate groups.
ReadWorkplace Investigations
When you report harassment or discrimination to your employer, they are legally required to take it seriously. What that obligation looks like — and what you can do when it doesn't happen.
ReadThe WARN Act
If your employer lays off 50 or more workers at once, federal law may require 60 days' advance notice — or pay in its place.
ReadYou Have a Right to Sue Letter. Here's What Changed.
The EEOC has closed its file. The letter is permission to sue — not a ruling — and from here nothing moves unless you move it.
ReadFinding Your Deadline
A lawsuit must be filed within 90 days of receiving the notice. Filed means entered on the court's docket — not drafted, mailed or nearly ready.
ReadNot Every Claim Runs on the Same Clock
The 90 days attaches to the claims that went through the EEOC charge. Age, equal pay, § 1981 and state-law claims run on separate tracks.
ReadWhat a Complaint Is
Rule 8 requires three things: jurisdiction, a short plain statement of the claim, and a demand for relief. There is a federal form built for people filing alone.
ReadNaming the Right Defendant
The name in the caption is the registered legal entity — often not the name on the building, the paycheck or the website.
ReadWhat You're Asking the Court For
Rule 8(a)(3) makes the demand for relief mandatory. Back pay, benefits, reinstatement, compensatory and punitive damages capped by employer size.
ReadFiguring Out Which Court
Two questions: federal or state, and which district within it. Title VII has its own venue rule, and districts are defined by county.
ReadHow Filing Actually Works
Filing the complaint commences the case and stops the 90-day clock. You leave with a case number, a judge and an issued summons.
ReadThe Filing Fee and Asking the Court to Waive It
§ 1914 sets the fee; § 1915 lets a court allow a case to start without prepaying it. A granted waiver also covers service by a U.S. marshal.
ReadWhat Service Is
Filing starts the case; it doesn't notify anyone. Service is the formal delivery that obligates the defendant to respond — and you can't do it yourself.
ReadServing a Business
Rule 4(h) allows state-law methods or delivery to an officer or authorized agent. The registered agent is the least contestable route.
ReadWaivers, Deadlines, and Proof
Rule 4(d) waivers trade 21 days for 60. Rule 4(m) gives 90 days from filing to serve — a second clock people routinely lose sight of.
ReadHow the Other Side Responds
An answer within 21 days, or 60 with a waiver — or a Rule 12 motion, which in employment cases is a routine first move.
ReadDiscovery
The longest phase of a civil case — initial disclosures, depositions, interrogatories and document requests, running in both directions.
ReadMediation and Settlement in Federal Court
Every district runs an ADR program, and litigants must consider one. This is separate from any EEOC mediation you already went through.
ReadChoosing a Venue
You have 90 days to file, and venue is correctable. Get it reasonably right, don't agonize, and don't let the choice eat into the deadline.
ReadNot sure where you stand?
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