Employment Discrimination Attorney in Pasadena
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What California Law Says About Employment Discrimination, and What You Can Do About It
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code § 12940) prohibits employers from discriminating against you based on race, age, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and many other characteristics. If your employer has five or more employees, FEHA almost certainly covers you. For harassment specifically, even a one-person company must comply. You have up to three years from the last discriminatory act to file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), and a Pasadena employment discrimination attorney can help you pursue back pay, emotional distress damages, and punitive damages with no statutory cap on any of those categories.
Which Employers and Workers FEHA Covers
Which Employers Must Follow FEHA
The reach of FEHA depends on what type of conduct is at issue. The table below shows how employer-size thresholds work in practice:
Type of Conduct | Minimum Employer Size | Controlling Authority
|
|---|---|---|
Discrimination and retaliation | 5 or more employees | |
Harassment | Any employer, including a one-person business |
Religious associations and certain nonprofit corporations are excluded from parts of FEHA’s discrimination provisions, but most private employers in Pasadena fall squarely within its reach.
Who Is Protected, Including People You Might Not Expect
FEHA does not protect only full-time salaried workers. Under Gov. Code §§ 12940(a) and (h), the following people are covered:
- Current employees (full-time, part-time, and temporary)
- Job applicants
- Former employees (for retaliation claims based on past protected activity)
- Unpaid interns and volunteers
- Independent contractors (protected specifically from harassment)
Your citizenship or immigration status does not affect your rights. The California Civil Rights Department does not inquire about immigration status when a complaint is filed, and FEHA protects all California workers.
Warning Signs That Your Employer May Have Discriminated Against You
Not every unfair workplace experience is illegal, but certain patterns consistently signal conduct that an employment discrimination attorney should evaluate. Use this checklist to take stock of your situation before your first call.
Warning Signs of Workplace Discrimination: A Pasadena Worker’s Checklist
No single item below is proof of a legal claim. Several together, especially when tied to a protected characteristic, often are.
Treatment tied to a protected characteristic (Gov. Code § 12940)
- Sudden change after a protected event. Performance reviews were positive until you disclosed a pregnancy, requested a religious accommodation, returned from military leave, or turned 40. Then new criticism appeared, your hours shifted, or your role changed.
- Different rules for different people. Employees outside your protected group (different race, younger, no disability) are held to looser attendance, dress, or performance standards than you are.
- Overlooked for promotion despite qualifications. A less experienced colleague outside your protected group was promoted or hired into a role you applied for, and no legitimate business reason was given.
- Denial of an accommodation without explanation. You requested a reasonable accommodation for a disability, pregnancy, or religious practice, and your employer refused or ignored the request without engaging in the interactive process required by FEHA.
- Sudden performance improvement plan after protected disclosure. A PIP, write-up, or disciplinary action appeared shortly after you complained about discrimination, requested leave, or reported a safety issue.
- Comments about age, disability, pregnancy, or national origin. A supervisor or HR representative made remarks about your age, ability to do the job while pregnant, accent, or national background, even if framed as a “joke.”
- Selective enforcement of company policies. Policies are strictly enforced against you but rarely or never applied to coworkers who are not in your protected group.
- “Restructuring” that eliminates your position only. Your position was eliminated in a supposed reorganization, but you are the only person laid off, and your duties were quietly reassigned to someone outside your protected group.
Signs you may also have a harassment claim (Gov. Code § 12940(j))
- Repeated offensive comments, slurs, or jokes directed at your race, gender, disability, or religion
- Unwanted physical contact or sexual advances that were not promptly addressed after you reported them
- Exclusion from meetings, communications, or opportunities in ways that other employees do not experience
Recognizing these patterns is the first step toward deciding whether to contact an employment discrimination attorney. If several of these apply to your situation, the next step is a confidential consultation. If you also experienced unwanted sexual conduct, our Pasadena sexual harassment lawyers handle those cases specifically.
How an Employment Discrimination Attorney Evaluates Your Claim
When you contact an employment discrimination attorney, the evaluation focuses on a core set of questions. Understanding them helps you prepare for your consultation and gather the right information beforehand.
- What is the protected characteristic? The attorney identifies which FEHA-protected trait (race, age, disability, etc.) connects the adverse action to your employer’s conduct.
- What was the adverse employment action? A termination, demotion, pay cut, denial of promotion, forced resignation, or hostile work environment all qualify. Vague discomfort generally does not.
- Is there a pattern or a paper trail? Emails, text messages, performance reviews, witness accounts, and comparator evidence (how others outside your protected group were treated) are the building blocks of a discrimination case.
- What defenses might the employer raise? A frequent employer defense is that the position was eliminated for legitimate business reasons. Under FEHA, the employer must articulate a lawful reason, and your attorney’s job is to show that reason is pretextual.
- Has the filing deadline passed? A claim filed even one day after the three-year window is lost, regardless of its merits. The attorney will calculate the deadline from the last discriminatory act.
Consider this scenario: A 52-year-old warehouse supervisor at a 40-person Pasadena distributor received strong performance reviews for seven years. After his 52nd birthday, his manager began excluding him from planning meetings, assigned him to overnight shifts with no explanation, and gave a newly hired 29-year-old the lead role on a key project. Three months later, the supervisor was told his position was “being restructured.” His duties were absorbed by the younger colleague. The sudden timing, the pattern of exclusion, and the comparator evidence would all be factors an attorney would weigh in evaluating an age discrimination claim under FEHA. This is an illustrative example, not a description of an actual client matter.
For situations involving wrongful discharge specifically, our Pasadena wrongful termination lawyers address the overlap between discrimination claims and termination-based relief.
What You Can Recover Under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act
Government Code § 12965(b) authorizes the following categories of relief for a prevailing employee:
Back Pay, Front Pay, and Reinstatement
Back pay covers wages, salary, and benefits you lost from the time of the discriminatory act through the date of judgment. Front pay covers future earnings you will lose if reinstatement is not practical. Reinstatement (returning you to your job) is also available where appropriate. These are dollar-for-dollar losses, calculated from your actual compensation history.
Emotional Distress Damages and Punitive Damages: No Cap
Unlike federal Title VII, which imposes per-employee caps on combined compensatory and punitive damages, FEHA places no statutory cap on either category. If your employer acted with malice, oppression, or fraud, punitive damages may be awarded on top of compensatory damages. This distinction matters significantly for cases involving egregious conduct.
If the discrimination involved a disability or failure to accommodate, our disability discrimination attorneys can explain how those specific facts affect the damages analysis.
Attorney’s Fees: Why This Matters If You Are Worried About Cost
The statute itself states “the court, in its discretion, may award to the prevailing party reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” — the text is discretionary in wording. However, controlling case law establishes that a prevailing plaintiff should ordinarily recover fees unless special circumstances render an award unjust, so in practice fees are near-automatic for prevailing plaintiffs but the statute is not literally “mandatory.” In practical terms, this means most FEHA cases can be handled on a contingency-fee basis: you pay nothing unless you win. This near-automatic fee-shifting is what makes it economically viable for an attorney to take a strong case regardless of your financial situation.
The Filing Process: What to Do Before You Can Sue in Court
The Three-Year Deadline to File With the CRD
Under AB 9 (the Stop Harassment and Reporting Extension Act, signed October 10, 2019), the deadline to file a FEHA complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) is three years from the date of the last discriminatory act. The clock starts on the most recent act, not the first one, which means an ongoing pattern of conduct restarts the deadline with each new incident. Do not wait for the situation to “get worse” before filing.
How to File a Complaint With the California Civil Rights Department
Filing options include:
- Online: Submit an intake form through the California Civil Rights System (CCRS) at calcivilrights.ca.gov
- By mail: Download a printed intake form from the CRD website and mail it to the CRD directly
- EEOC cross-filing: If you file with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), your complaint is automatically cross-filed with the CRD under a worksharing agreement between the two agencies, and vice versa
At the time you file, request an immediate Right-to-Sue notice. This notice is required before you can file a civil lawsuit in California court, and requesting it immediately preserves your right to litigate without waiting for the CRD investigation to conclude.
What Happens After You File
The CRD investigates complaints only from individuals who believe they were victimized. An employer cannot file a complaint against an employee through the CRD. While a case is open, investigative records are not shared publicly. Once a case is closed, parties may request copies of the file under the Public Records Act. The CRD’s general information line is (800) 884-1684 (voice) or (800) 700-2320 (TTY).
What This Means If Something at Work Just Changed for the Worse
If you are reading this because something happened recently, the most important thing to know is that the three-year clock is already running from the date of the last discriminatory act. Do not wait to see if things improve. Start documenting now: write down dates, names, specific comments, and what witnesses were present, and preserve any relevant emails or texts in a personal account outside of company systems. The strength of a FEHA claim depends heavily on contemporaneous records, and that evidence degrades quickly. You do not need to be certain you have a claim before speaking with an attorney. The consultation exists precisely to answer that question. For a broader overview of your options, our California employment discrimination attorneys handle the full range of FEHA claims across the state, and our Pasadena employment lawyers are available for in-person consultations closer to home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does FEHA cover me if I work part-time or as a temp?
Yes. FEHA’s discrimination and retaliation protections extend to temporary and part-time employees at any covered employer, as well as job applicants and former employees.
What if my employer has fewer than five employees?
The discrimination and retaliation provisions of FEHA require at least five employees. However, if your claim involves harassment, FEHA’s harassment provisions apply to every employer regardless of size, even a one-person company.
Do I have to let the CRD finish its investigation before I can sue?
No. You can request an immediate Right-to-Sue notice at the time you file your complaint with the CRD. This allows you to proceed directly to civil litigation without waiting for the investigation to conclude.
Is there a cap on what I can recover?
FEHA does not impose a statutory cap on compensatory or punitive damages for intentional employment discrimination. This is a meaningful difference from federal Title VII, which does impose per-employee limits.
I am undocumented. Can I still file a complaint?
Yes. FEHA protects all California workers regardless of citizenship or immigration status. The CRD does not ask about immigration status when a complaint is filed.
This article is general legal information only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employment discrimination cases depend on specific facts, and the law can change. Nothing in this article should be relied upon as a guarantee of any particular outcome. For advice about your individual situation, consult a licensed California employment attorney.
Contact Setareh Law Group:If you believe you have experienced workplace discrimination in Pasadena or anywhere in California, contact Setareh Law Group for a confidential consultation. Our employment discrimination attorneys represent California workers on a contingency-fee basis, meaning you pay no fees unless we recover for you. Call us or use the contact form on this page to speak with our team.
Contact us today:
📞 Phone: 310-888-7771
✉️ Email: help@setarehlaw.com
🌐 Address: 420 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills CA, 90210
Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is unique, and outcomes depend on specific facts and circumstances. Consult with a qualified California employment attorney to discuss your individual situation.
Sources and Additional Resources
Authoritative sources cited
- Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code § 12940)
- Gov. Code § 12926(d)
- California Civil Rights Department does not inquire about immigration status
- Government Code § 12965(b)
- California Civil Rights System (CCRS)
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