Losing your job is a crisis. Losing it because of who you are is against the law. If you were fired from a Coral Springs medical office, school, retail store, professional office, restaurant, or small business because of your race, color, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, religion, national origin, or another protected characteristic, you may have a wrongful termination claim, no matter what reason your employer gave.
Kaplan Employment Law represents employees fired by employers throughout Coral Springs and Broward County, from Coral Springs Medical Center and the medical offices around it to the retail along Sample Road and University Drive and the professional offices across the city. Tell us what happened.
What Is Wrongful Termination in Coral Springs?
Florida is an at-will employment state. Your employer can fire you for a bad reason, an unfair reason, or no reason at all. What your employer cannot do is fire you for an unlawful reason. A firing becomes wrongful termination when the real reason was a characteristic the law protects, even if the employer called it a performance issue, a policy violation, or a business decision.
Wrongful termination and retaliation are related but legally different claims. This page covers firings based on who you are, a protected characteristic. If you were fired because of something you did, such as reporting harassment, requesting FMLA leave, or complaining about unpaid wages, see our page on retaliation in Coral Springs.
Protected Characteristics Under Federal, Florida, and Broward County Law
Coral Springs employees are protected from being fired because of:
- Race and color
- Sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity
- Pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions
- Age (the federal ADEA protects workers 40 and older at employers with 20 or more employees)
- Disability, including a record of a disability or being regarded as disabled
- Religion
- National origin and ancestry
- Marital status, familial status, and political affiliation, under the Broward County Human Rights Act
Title VII, the ADA, and the Florida Civil Rights Act generally apply to employers with 15 or more employees. The Broward County Human Rights Act reaches employers with as few as five employees, and Section 1981 race claims have no employee minimum at all. For the many medical and dental practices, retail shops, restaurants, and family-owned businesses in Coral Springs, those local and federal gap-fillers often decide whether a claim exists.
How a Discriminatory Firing Is Proven
Employers rarely say the quiet part out loud. Most wrongful termination cases are proven with circumstantial evidence, built in steps.
The Basic Case
To get started, you generally show that you belong to a protected group, that you were qualified for your job, that you were fired, and that you were replaced by someone outside your protected group or treated less favorably than a similarly situated coworker outside it.
Comparator Evidence
Comparator evidence is often the strongest proof in a wrongful termination case. If a coworker outside your protected class broke the same rule, made the same mistake, or had the same attendance or performance issue and kept their job while you were fired, that difference in treatment speaks for itself. In the Eleventh Circuit, a comparator generally must be similarly situated to you in all material respects, so the details matter: same supervisor, same policy, similar conduct.
Pretext
Once you make that showing, your employer must give a legitimate reason for the firing. The case then turns on whether that reason is the real one. Shifting explanations, rules enforced only against you, a clean record that changed after a pregnancy announcement or a medical disclosure, and reasons that do not match your personnel file are all signs of pretext.
Direct Evidence and the Convincing Mosaic
Sometimes there is direct evidence: a comment that you are “too old” for the job, that customers prefer a certain look, or that your accent does not fit the company image. Even without a single smoking gun, courts in the Eleventh Circuit allow a case to proceed on a convincing mosaic of circumstantial evidence that, taken together, points to discrimination.
Wrongful Termination in Coral Springs Workplaces
The patterns we see most often in Coral Springs include:
- Pregnancy in small offices: medical, dental, and office employees whose hours are cut, or who are told their position is being restructured, after announcing a pregnancy.
- Age: longtime employees replaced by younger, lower-paid workers.
- Disability and medical leave: employees fired shortly after disclosing a medical condition, often without any discussion of a reasonable accommodation.
- Race and national origin: discipline and terminations that fall disproportionately on employees of one race or national origin for conduct tolerated in others.
- Religion: employees fired after requesting time off or a schedule change for religious observance, without any real effort to accommodate.
Common Employer Defenses, and How We Answer Them
“You were fired for performance.”
We compare your record before and after the event that matters, and we compare you to coworkers with the same issues who were not fired.
“We replaced you with someone in the same protected group.”
That fact can make a case harder, but it is not the end of it. Comparator evidence, discriminatory comments, and the timing of the decision can still prove the real reason.
“It was a business decision.”
Restructurings, eliminated positions, and budget cuts are tested against the facts: whether the position was refilled, whether the cut fell only on you, and whether the stated business reason holds up.
Filing Deadlines and Where to File
- Title VII, ADA, and ADEA: a charge with the EEOC Miami District Office within 300 days of the firing.
- Florida Civil Rights Act: a charge with the Florida Commission on Human Relations within 365 days.
- Broward County Human Rights Act: a complaint with Broward County’s Human Rights Section within 300 days.
- Section 1981 race claims: generally four years, filed directly in court.
Federal claims proceed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division; state claims in the Broward County Courthouse, Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.
What You Can Realistically Recover
In most wrongful termination cases, the heart of your recovery is lost wages, and realistically, that is what these cases settle for. Lost wages are measured by how long you have been out of work looking for a new job, multiplied by what you would have been earning at your old job if you had never been fired.
Emotional distress damages may also be available, but they require real proof: a mental health diagnosis and ongoing treatment with a psychiatrist for conditions that arose because of the firing.
Punitive damages are rare. They apply only in extreme cases and generally require taking your case to a jury trial. Under federal law, compensatory and punitive damages combined are also capped based on the size of the employer.
FAQs About Wrongful Termination in Coral Springs
Can an at-will employee have a wrongful termination claim?
Yes. At-will employment allows a firing for almost any reason, but not for a discriminatory one.
My employer never said anything discriminatory. Can I still have a case?
Yes. Most cases are proven with circumstantial evidence, especially how similarly situated coworkers outside your protected class were treated.
I was fired after complaining about discrimination. Is that wrongful termination or retaliation?
If you were fired because you complained, that is retaliation, a separate claim based on protected activity. See our Coral Springs retaliation page. Many cases involve both.
Does being unfairly fired count as wrongful termination?
Not by itself. A firing that is unfair, petty, or based on a personality conflict is not illegal unless the real reason was a protected characteristic or protected activity.
Does it matter how many employees my employer has?
It does. Title VII and the FCRA require 15 employees and the ADEA requires 20, but the Broward County Human Rights Act covers employers with as few as five, and Section 1981 race claims cover employers of any size.
Should I sign the severance agreement I was given?
Not before it is reviewed. Most severance agreements require you to release every claim you have, including a wrongful termination claim. Learn more about severance agreements in Coral Springs.
What should I do right after being fired?
Write down your timeline, save every document and message you can still access, identify coworkers who were treated differently, and speak with an employment lawyer before your filing deadlines approach.
Why Coral Springs Employees Choose Kaplan Employment Law
We focus exclusively on employment law. You work directly with your attorney, we prepare every case as though it will be tried, and many cases are handled on a contingency basis, so you pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you.
Fired in Coral Springs for an Unlawful Reason? Contact Us Today.
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