Whistleblower Lawsuit

Whistleblowers are the key to exposing corporate wrongdoing and government fraud. If you have first-hand knowledge of fraud or other wrongdoing, you may have a whistleblower case and be entitled to significant financial compensation.  Call us today to get the facts.  Call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or fill out our online contact form and a lawyer will respond within 24 hours to answer your questions.  This is a confidential consultation.  If an employee is made aware of the fact that his or her employer is violating certain laws or regulations, or if the employer is actively engaging in behavior that can be a potential danger to public health and safety, then the employee may wish to file a whistleblower claim. Employees may fear that their employers will retaliate against them for making whistleblower claims, but there are actually a number of laws at both the state and federal level that protect whistleblowers from such recrimination.

The term "whistleblower" is often used interchangeably with "retaliation," and while an employer may try to retaliate against an employee for filing such a claim, the two claims are, in fact, very different things.

Whistleblower claims are made to address the harm that an employer's conduct can have on society as a whole, as opposed to someone making a complaint that directly affects him or her on a personal level. Examples of whistleblower claims include those that address a government official actively wasting taxpayers' money, or a corporation actively pursuing an activity that could be deemed a threat to public safety.

Retaliation claims, on the other hand, are those that are made in response to an employer's infringement upon an individual worker's rights, such as the right to be free from discrimination and the right to join a union.

Some employers, upon learning who the whistleblower is within the company, will try to make the employee's life miserable, rather than terminate his or her employment. This way, the employer can't technically be charged with retaliation. Any transfers or promotions that the employee may have been eligible for before suddenly disappear, and the employee may be disciplined for every little thing, no matter how minor, like showing up one minute late for work. 

The employer may also make hostile remarks toward the employee and/or encourage his or her co-workers to do the same. The problem is that, while the employer may be trying to encourage the employee to quit, the employee may face legal repercussions if he takes the bait. 

If an employer is proven in a court of law to have actively tried to encourage an employee to quit, or if the employer can be proven to have made the work environment intolerably hostile for the employee, then the employee will more than likely be entitled to every remedy he has coming to him upon leaving his job. Unfortunately, the laws as written are not yet detailed enough to cover every possible situation, so employees are not as protected as they should be.