I was recently layed off from a major private University and am wondering whether any Federal or State (Illinois, in this case) laws would allow me to make a wrongful termination claim against my former employer.
The short version: I was employed by a largish clinical department as IT administrator for approximately 8 years. About a year ago, the department experienced a difficult change in leadership which was not entirely amicable. As a result, any administrators or staff who were seen as being too cozy with the previous chairman (pretty much everybody) were immediately relieved of significant responsibilities. When these employees could not be made sufficiently uncomfortable to quit, the positions were simply eliminated and recreated with minor changes in order to avoid the (difficult and generally unwarranted) process of firing someone through the University.
I am definitely able to document an ongoing pattern of layoffs as alternatives to firings (at least ten cases at various levels which were all replaced by similar positions). I am also able to prove that my employer told others he was trying to get rid of me and that, although I was encouraged to apply for the new position, that he had no intention of offering me that position because he did not trust me. Neither I nor anyone else was offered any severance, despite a long history of positive performance reviews and the minimum (one month) notice.
Is there a case here, or should I just suck it up? I’m not aware of any specific discrimination laws that apply, and I understand the employment at will doctrine probably works against me. Does anyone have any experience in this area?
You need to contact either an attorney licensed in Illinois with an expertise in employment law or the Illinois department of labor. Soliciting legal advice on a message board is dumb, offering it is dumber and taking it is dumbest.
With all due respect, if you don’t know the answer to my question, please don’t bother responding. Your condescension isn’t helpful to anyone.
As a matter of fact, having already contacted BOTH the Illinois Department of Labor and an attorney, I’m receiving somewhat contradictory information and am basically looking for anything specific that might help me make a decision. Given that this is a board of experts on many subjects, I thought someone might be able to point out a particular presedent that might guide my research. If not, thanks anyways.
You may frown if you wish; I certainly won’t hold it against you. Nevertheless, I could really use some actual advise here and would appreciate not being threadjacked by naysayers.
Sweetie, if you think that was condescension then I fear for your success on these boards. First, as Guin noted, it’s frowned upon here to seek specific legal advice for a specific legal situation in which you are personally involved. It potentially opens up our fine hosts to liability, which could result in the boards going away. Second, no lawyer worth his or her salt is going to respond to a request for such advice for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to avoid committing malpractice. Finally, anyone who relies on legal advice received on a message board from strangers does so to his detriment.
I am glad to see that you are consulting with both and attorney and the DoL. Good luck with your decision.
No one is “naysaying” you. Otto is simply advising you not to solicit legal advice on a message board, a VERY wise piece of advice. Any advice you get here on a specific legal matter would be quite suspect, either because it would be too general to be of any real use (which, of course, is the reason we spend three years in law school, to help be something more than vaguely general with specific facts), or because it would be being offered by someone who doesn’t really know what they are doing, because any attorney who did know what they were doing wouldn’t be offering you the advice in the first place, for many reasons, professional liability not the least of them.
If you want some general information about Illinois labor law, I’d check a library for some helpful sources of generalized information; a local law school library or the local bar association library might have such a reference. But if you’ve already gotten to the point of consulting with an attorney and the state labor division, you are well past generalities and aren’t likely to solve your issues with a general reference, or with message board advice.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you all are sort of missing the point. Not only is my question not against the rules (which is what the mods are for), but I’m not even asking for advice in a legal sense. I’m asking for a factual piece of information which many non-practicing non-lawyers may very well possess for my own research purposes. So it would generally be considered polite to not respond if you don’t know the answer, even if you really really don’t like the question because it bugs you or whatever.
And not to be petty, but yes, I would consider calling someone and anyone who might possibly respond to their question dumb to be fairly condescending (as, by the way, is the use of the pejorative “sweetie”). I give it a 7. And bad behavior on the part of others is really no excuse.
But frankly, never mind. I don’t need the grief and have no intention of “succeeding” on any boards that are so unfriendly, so I’ll just sort it out myself. Thanks anyways.
You think “sweetie” is a perjorative? Man, I’d hate to be your girlfriend.
And yeah, you actually are asking for legal advice, as much as you’d like to dress it up as some sort of general fact-finding mission. You present some facts about your situation and then ask if you have a case. “Do I have a case” is pretty much the hallmark of asking for legal advice. And the correct answer to the question “do I have a case” is “consult a lawyer and/or the IL DoL because asking for legal advice on a message board is a bad idea.” Sorry if you don’t like the answer, but there it is.
cenglin, with apologies, I am about to be quite impolite.
I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer. You are not my client. What follows is not legal advice, as should become apparent quickly.
You have asked for legal advice, as my learned colleagues Otto, DSYoungEsq and Guinastasia have pointed out. You have laid out certain facts relevant to your personal situation, and you have asked whether Illinois wrongful termination law gives rise to a cause of action based on those facts. That is a request for legal advice as I (a lawyer) understand it.
Unfortunately, we would be remiss if we answered your question, because none of us has had the opportunity to ask you relevant questions. There likely are material facts that could push us one way or the other in our opinions. Because we have not asked those questions, nor do we know those facts, you will not get an informed opinion here, other than the informed opinion you have gotten already, and which you do not like.
I understand that you have come to us because there is a conflict between what your lawyer has told you and what the Illinois Department of Labor (they have a great acronym, by the way) has told you. I am sympathetic, but cannot resolve such a conflict. Try these guys, for actual legal advice tailored to your situation, which no one here will give you. Best of luck.
The Straight Dope and The Chicago Reader strongly urge posters to not ask for specific medical or legal advice on these boards. By “strongly urge” I mean
