Photo by David Veksler 

If you lose your job and think you may have a wrongful termination claim against your employer, we recommend that you take the following two steps immediately:

  1. Contact an experienced California wrongful termination attorney; and
  2. Gather and preserve all available evidence related to your case.

Gathering evidence, of course, consists of obtaining and preserving all written documents your employer has given you related to your termination and your job performance prior to termination (for example, your termination letter, copies of all past performance reviews).

You may need to request some of these documents from your employer if you have not saved them yourself. (If your employer does not respond to these requests, an attorney can help you make them more forcefully.)

But oral conversations may also be important evidence in a wrongful discharge lawsuit. Conversations about your termination itself, conversations about your job performance, and any conversation that led you to form certain expectations about your job security are all potentially relevant under California wrongful termination law.

Therefore, it is important to write down and store in a secure place your recollections of all conversations with supervisors or other employees that may be relevant to your termination. These written records should note that the date, place and all participants for all of these conversations.