Wrongful termination can happen in numerous different ways. For example, Michigan employees might be wrongfully terminated as a result of racial discrimination or as a result of retaliation for making a complaint about sexual harassment. In other cases, an employee could be wrongfully terminated in a way that violates his or her employment contract.
An employment contract is either a written document signed at the beginning of employment, or an “implied contract” that was based on what was said to the employee, what is written in the employee manual or something else. Terminated employees can evaluate whether they were wrongfully terminated by reviewing the following questions:
- Did you have a working contract? Did your termination fall under the permissible reasons for losing your job? Did your employer follow the written termination procedure?
- Did you have an employee handbook? Did your termination fall under the potential reasons for disciplinary measures and termination under the handbook?
- Did your manager or employer make any unwritten promises to you? Perhaps he or she told you that you had tenure or a guarantee of employment.
- Did your employer or manager promise that you would only lose your job under certain conditions?
If you can answer yes to any of the above bullets, it could indicate the potential that you suffered a breach of contract wrongful termination.
Although the determination that anyone has been wrongfully terminated will not be clear until an employment law court has had a chance to rule on the matter, with the right legal training and experience, it’s possible to ascertain whether someone has a viable cause of action to pursue a lawsuit after a suspicious firing.