Getting fired is never a good thing, especially if your termination was wrongful. If you feel something was unjust about being dismissed from your job, you might want to talk to a Detroit-area employment law attorney about the matter. In some cases, filing a lawsuit can make the best of a bad situation. It certainly does not happen in every case, but sometimes the favorable results of a wrongful termination lawsuit are pleasantly surprising.
For example, the women’s tennis coach at Ball State University, who was wrongfully terminated in 2010, recently reached a settlement with the school that will earn her $710,000 and healthcare for life. Now, it’s probably fair to say the tennis coach would have preferred to have not been wrongfully terminated in the first place, but it certainly appears as though her settlement is not a bad consolation prize.
The tennis coach was fired after she self-reported some NCAA violations, including loaning her players $125 for a housing deposit and fudging practice-hour numbers. She believed that she was being sent packing because she had been publicly critical of the way Ball State was complying with Title IX, the federal mandate that any institution receiving federal funding not discriminate on the basis of sex. She sued, alleging breach of contract, defamation, retaliation for complaining about sex discrimination and equal protection retaliation. She and the school reached their settlement late last month.
As we said, it’s probably fair to assume the tennis coach still wishes she had her job. But in light of the fact that the school had allegedly become hostile to her, perhaps this settlement is really the best thing that could have happened.
Source: The Star Press, “Fired BSU coach gets $710K settlement,” Doug Zaleski, June 29, 2012