Practice Areas

Depending on the number of employees working for your employer at or near your work site, you may be legally entitled to take medical leave under either the federal “Family Medical Leave Act” or the state. If you are entitled to take such leave, your employer cannot fire you or otherwise retaliate against you for exercising this right. This legal right applies even to “at-will” employees, and allows an employee who has been victimized by an employer that has refused to meet its obligations under these Acts to bring a lawsuit for damages against the employer. Such an employee may even be awarded reimbursement for attorney fees.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA) protects employees that take a leave of absence from their job to serve our country in the National Guard or Reserves.

If your employer terminated your employment shortly after your return from deployment, call us and one of our attorneys’ will talk to you about your case.

The Family and Medical Leave Act was amended by Congress to help families adjust when a sailors and soldiers return home from active duty. Sometimes member of our Armed Forces need to seek out treatment for a variety of injuries that occur as a result of service to our country.

Your employer may have responsibilities to assist you with your return from duty and any subsequent medical treatment.

If you are a spouse of a service member, your employer may have responsibilities to help you and your family care for your returning loved one.

If you think your employer is violating those rights, or even terminated your employment because you cared for yourself or your spouse after active duty service, fill out our online form and one of our attorneys’ will respond to your inquiry and personally discuss your case.

Under federal law, it is unlawful for an employer to take any employment action against an employee based upon who they are or what they believe. An employer cannot discriminate against someone because of their age, race, sex, religion, pregnancy, disability or natural origin. They cannot commit an adverse employment action against an employee for discriminatory reasons. Adverse employment actions include termination, demotion, failure to promote, reduction in work hours, unfavorable job assignments or involuntary transfers. Even “at will” employees are entitled to the legal protections afforded by the statutes. This means that employees have the right to sue employers who have engaged in discrimination, and to seek monetary damages and attorney’s fees.

• Are you over forty?
• Did your employer terminate your employment?
• Did your employer demote you from your former position?
• Did the job go to somebody younger than you?
• Did your employer promote a younger person to a position even though you were far better qualified?

If the answers to some or all of these questions is yes, you may be the victim of age discrimination. Fill out the online form and one of our attorneys’ will return your call and discuss you case.

Alabama and federal law prohibit discrimination based upon your age. Age discrimination is only provided to individuals forty years of age or older. If an employee is younger than forty, the law would not be applicable. For employees age forty and above the law prohibits age being a motivating factor in regards to adverse employment decisions made by an employer. Adverse employment decisions include termination, demotion, failure to promote, reduction in work hours, unfavorable job assignments or involuntary transfers. Also, age discrimination prohibits your being laid off or involved in a reduction in force by your employer while younger, less qualified and less experienced employees are retained by your employer.

An employer may not terminate an employee or take other adverse job actions based on that individual’s race. Race discrimination is prohibited, regardless of your race. The laws prohibiting such discrimination apply to all minorities, as well as to whites. Race discrimination can be seen in the form of a hostile work environment composed of sexual slurs and matters and symbols such as a noose. Race discrimination can also be shown by an employee suffering an adverse job action, such as termination, where they were singled out and treated differently than someone of a different race. If the employee was subjected to worse discipline by the decision maker than someone of a different race under similar circumstances, discrimination may be the cause.

An employer may not terminate an employee or take other adverse job action on account of sex or pregnancy. Sex discrimination is different than sexual harassment. Sex discrimination means that an employee is singled out and treated different than employees of the opposite sex. It can apply for either males or females, although the Equal Pay Act is only applicable to help females achieve pay equality with males. For all other types of sexual discrimination claims based upon an adverse job action a charge of discrimination must be filed with the EEOC first. An adverse job action includes termination, demotion, failure to promote, reduction in work hours, unfavorable job assignments or involuntary transfers.

Pregnancy discrimination by employers is illegal. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is now a part of a law called Title VII, which is initially administered by the EEOC. After the EEOC investigation a right-to-sue is issued that allows the suit to be filed in federal court. Pregnancy discrimination prohibits employers from fabricating reasons to fire pregnant employees in order to avoid their legal obligations.

Federal law (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act) prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of religion. This means that your employer cannot make any decisions based on or treat you differently because of your religious beliefs or practices in any aspect of employment—from hiring to firing and everything in between. In addition, where workers articulate a need to express their religious beliefs and practices in the workplace, companies are generally required to accommodate them, unless doing so would cause the company undue hardship. Typical religious discrimination cases involve terminations based upon request by an employee to be accommodated for their religious needs. These can include matters dealing with undesirable schedules, demotions, failure to promote or terminations.

• What is a religious observance or practice?
  Religious observances or practices include, for example, attending worship services, praying, wearing religious garb or symbols, displaying religious objects, adhering to certain dietary rules, proselytizing or other forms of religious expression, or refraining from certain activities.
• Can my employer treat me differently because the business’s customers are hostile to my religion?
  No. If an employer takes an action based on the discriminatory religious preferences of others, including customers, clients, or co-workers, the employer is unlawfully discriminating in employment based on religion. Customer preference is not a defense to a claim of discrimination.
• Can my employer treat me differently because my religion requires me to dress in a specific manner or groom myself in a specific manner?
  No. Title VII requires an employer, once it is aware that a religious accommodation is needed, to accommodate an employee whose sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance conflicts with a work requirement, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. Therefore, when an employer’s dress and grooming policy or preference conflicts with an employee’s known religious beliefs or practices, the employer must make an exception to allow the religious practice unless that would be an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business.

No matter the problem your employer may have regarding your religious practices, before you can pursue your legal rights in a Court of law, you and the employer will needed to have some sort of conversation to attempt to work out the problem.

If you have had that conversation and your employer did not accommodate your religious needs, click on the link below and fill out the form and tell us about your experience.

Do you or someone you love suffer from a physical or mental handicap? Does that physical or mental handicap affect the one or more of the following:

• The ability to care for oneself
• Performing manual tasks
• Seeing
• Hearing
• Eating
• Sleeping
• Walking
• Standing
• Lifting
• Bending
• Speaking
• Breathing
• Learning
• Reading
• Concentrating
• Thinking
• Communicating
• Does the physical or mental impairment affect the function of one or more of the following major bodily functions
• Your immune system
• Suffer unhealthy cell growth
• Your digestive, bladder and/or bowel systems
• A neurological or brain disorder
• Your respiratory system
• Your circulatory System
• Your endocrine system
• Your reproductive system

If you or a loved one is suffering problems at their place of employment and answers “Yes” to any of the above questions, fill out our information form and Fonteneau and Arnold will personally contact you to discuss your potential claim.

You may have the right to ask your employer to provide a reasonable accommodation.

If you are disabled and you think your employer terminated your employment, denied you a promotion, or demoted you because you have a disability, fill out our information form and Fonteneau and Arnold will personally contact you to discuss your potential claim.

If you are a caregiving parent to a disabled child, you also may be protected by the Americans with Disabilities from having your employer take adverse actions because of your need to care for your child.

If you or a loved one is suffering problems on-the-job and answers “Yes” to any of the above questions, fill out our information form and Fonteneau and Arnold will personally contact you to discuss your potential claim.