Employment Discrimination Attorney in Santa Clarita

Discrimination under FEHA does not require a supervisor to say something overtly bigoted. The conduct that generates valid claims is often more subtle: a pattern of decisions, differential treatment in assignments, or a seemingly neutral policy applied unevenly. The following are examples of what actionable discrimination can look like across different protected categories:

• Race or national origin: A manager assigns the most desirable shifts to employees of one ethnicity while consistently giving less favorable hours to workers of another, despite equal seniority.
• Sex or gender identity: A warehouse supervisor refers an employee who recently transitioned to performance review for the first time after years of positive evaluations, with no documented change in job performance.
• Age: A company eliminates positions held only by workers over 50 while retaining younger employees in functionally identical roles and calling the action a “restructuring.”
• Disability: An employer terminates an employee for absences without first exploring whether a leave of absence or schedule adjustment would serve as a reasonable accommodation.
• Reproductive health decisionmaking: A manager learns an employee used reproductive health services and, within weeks, places the employee on a performance improvement plan for the first time.
• Military or veteran status: An employer declines to promote an applicant after learning the person recently returned from deployment, citing concerns about “commitment.”

If your situation does not fit a neat category, that does not mean it falls outside FEHA. An employment discrimination attorney can assess whether a pattern of decisions, taken together, supports a claim.

If your concerns involve sexual harassment specifically, our sexual harassment lawyers in Santa Clarita handle those claims separately under the same FEHA framework.

Mistakes That Can Weaken Your FEHA Discrimination Claim

Competitor pages rarely address this, but what you do (or fail to do) before filing can significantly affect the strength of your claim. These are the most common errors:

1. Waiting too long to write down what happened. FEHA gives you three years to file with the CRD, but memory degrades quickly. Write down the date, the exact words used, who was present, and the outcome the same day if possible. Specificity is the difference between a credible account and a vague complaint.
2. Losing access to communications before saving them. If you are terminated or placed on leave, you may immediately lose access to your work email, Slack, or internal systems. Screenshot or forward relevant messages, performance reviews, and schedules to a personal account before a separation event, provided doing so does not violate your employer’s written policies.
3. Assuming HR is on your side. Human resources works for the employer. A report to HR creates a paper trail, which is often valuable, but the investigation that follows is conducted by someone whose job is to limit the employer’s liability, not to vindicate you. Consult an attorney before making formal internal complaints about serious discrimination.
4. Failing to identify comparators. FEHA claims frequently rest on showing that employees outside your protected class were treated more favorably in similar circumstances. Think carefully about coworkers in comparable roles who were not disciplined, not laid off, or not passed over. Their names and situations are evidence.
5. Accepting a settlement or signing a separation agreement without legal review. Severance agreements routinely include releases of all employment claims. Signing one without understanding what you are waiving can permanently extinguish a FEHA claim. Federal law under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) generally requires at least 21 days to consider certain age-discrimination waivers and provides a 7-day revocation period after signing. Group termination programs may require a longer 45-day consideration period. The specific requirements depend on the agreement and circumstances.
6. Missing the CRD filing deadline. Three years sounds long, but the clock starts on the date of the discriminatory act, not the date you realized it was discriminatory. Missing the CRD deadline forfeits the right to sue entirely. Do not assume you have more time than you do.