Can I sue them for wrongful termination?

by **bret11** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 5:57 pm

Hello Everyone.. Please Help. Recently I was employed for a very large corporation in florida. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me I had a warrant for my arrest. The authorities came to my place of work and I was arrested. This was very humiliating to me. The charge was fraud, which is a felony. I was arrested, made bail, and released a couple of hours later. The next day I received a call from the Human Resourses Dept or my employer that I could not return to work. I tried to explain to them that I was innocent of this crime, however I was still let go. To make a long story short, after countless visits and going through the court system i was exonerated (found not guilty) and my question is... Do I have a lawsuit against the employer. They did not give me the opportunity to prove myself innocent. They automatically assumed that I was guilty. This is so frustrating because I was a faithful employee and I feel that they had no cause to terminate me. Now I do feel that they could have suspened my position until the issue was resolved, but they did not. Now I am out of a job where I made a fairly good wage and instead receiving unemployment compensation. Can Anyone that knows about the law explain this to me, because I am surely clueless.

by **karlitis** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:00 pm

Hello Everyone.. Please Help. Recently I was employed for a very large corporation in florida. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me I had a warrant for my arrest. The authorities came to my place of work and I was arrested. This was very humiliating to me. The charge was fraud, which is a felony. I was arrested, made bail, and released a couple of hours later. The next day I received a call from the Human Resourses Dept or my employer that I could not return to work. I tried to explain to them that I was innocent of this crime, however I was still let go. To make a long story short, after countless visits and going through the court system i was exonerated (found not guilty) and my question is... Do I have a lawsuit against the employer. They did not give me the opportunity to prove myself innocent. They automatically assumed that I was guilty. This is so frustrating because I was a faithful employee and I feel that they had no cause to terminate me. Now I do feel that they could have suspened my position until the issue was resolved, but they did not. Now I am out of a job where I made a fairly good wage and instead receiving unemployment compensation. Can Anyone that knows about the law explain this to me, because I am surely clueless.

the state of Florida is an at will state, this means you can be fired for any reason or no reason, getting arrested at work would be any reason, it does not matter if you were guilty or not, there is nothing to sue for

by **pascoe69** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:02 pm

You are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but not in the workplace. Since you have now been exonerated, you can always re-apply for a job at that same company.

by **chason62** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:13 pm

Sure you can sue them. I don't like you odds of winning though. What law do you think they broke by firing you?

You don't know they assumed you were guilty. All you know is you were fired.

by **osryd** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:15 pm

If you weren't protected by a union contract or a personal contract you were an "at will". That means your employer can terminate you at any time for any reason or no reason at all. You do not have a case.

by **salvadore94** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:24 pm

As a general rule, "most" companies will not hire anyone with a felony record period. Granted you had been hired and unbeknown-st to you, had a warrant out for your arrest that subsequently got exonerated.

But you have to look at it in their way of thinking. They did not know if the felony was valid or not. The charge is fraud which is not a small matter and also knew that regardless if guilty or not, you might be off work a lot dealing with this to either be found not guilty or charged with it period.

But even though you were exonerated, my concern now is that IF you can get your record clean or not? Since most employers will ask on the application IF you have ever been charged with a felony or misdemeanor and if so the reasons and the results. Any suspicion of fraud might put out "red flags" to a potential employer, even though you were exonerated, since they might "believe" that the charges were valid, but got off through a good lawyer.

If it was me, I would make an appointment with a lawyer for your legal rights about clearing this charge on your record if possible.

good luck

by **arne33** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:33 pm

Florida is an at-will state, meaning you or your employer may terminate the employment relationship at any time for any reason.

While this has benefits to the employee, in your case you really have no recourse unless you are/were protected by a contract or labor agreement (union).

The good news is you were exonerated, so you won't have a conviction on your record. Plus, since you were terminated, you MAY qualify for unemployment to help get you through to your next job. Check with the Florida unemployment office to confirm if you qualify in your case.

Good luck!

by **shashank** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:40 pm

Florida is an at-will state, meaning you or your employer may terminate the employment relationship at any time for any reason.

While this has benefits to the employee, in your case you really have no recourse unless you are/were protected by a contract or labor agreement (union).

The good news is you were exonerated, so you won't have a conviction on your record. Plus, since you were terminated, you MAY qualify for unemployment to help get you through to your next job. Check with the Florida unemployment office to confirm if you qualify in your case.

Good luck!

The law is that you can be fired for any reason whatsoever as long as it isn't related to your age/race/gender/religion/etc. You can absolutely be fired for a felony charge, and you can be fired for no reason whatsoever.

Your employer doesn't have to give you the opportunity to prove yourself innocent. If they choose to fire you for something that is unsubstantiated then they have to pay your unemployment, which is happening here. Likewise if you suspect that your employer is doing something you don't approve of you are free to quit at any time without them having to prove anything to you. It's a two-way street.

Don't confuse being found not guilty with being exonerated. The only thing a not guilty verdict means is that the prosecution was unable to prove that you were guilty in court. The fact that you were charged with felony fraud and there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial means that something happened, even if it couldn't be proven to be criminal. Cases don't go all the way to trial unless there's some kind of substance to the charges. Depending on the kind of job you have that could be enough for an employer to decide that you're too risky to have around.

You can hire an attorney to attempt to clear the charges from your record if this is possible in your jurisdiction. This will not be cheap and it will not be easy though. You know the details of your case better than anybody here so you have to decide if it's worth it to try.

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