Public & Government Employers
Civil servant, police officer, firefighter, teacher, utility worker — the same protections against discrimination, retaliation, and harassment apply to you, and in many ways you have more protection than a private worker, not less. But some people assume suing the government works like suing a company. That's not true. The deadlines are shorter, some claims don't exist at all, and one wrong step in an internal process can close a courtroom door for good. Those traps scare a lot of lawyers off these cases entirely. I take them, and I know the terrain.
Public employment covers far more people than most realize:
Every protection described elsewhere on this site applies to public employees: discrimination and harassment, retaliation and whistleblowing, disability and accommodation, and medical and family leave. Being a government worker takes none of that away.
In fact, public employees often have more than private workers do. You typically can't be disciplined or fired without due process — notice and a real chance to respond — where a private at-will worker gets none. Police officers and firefighters have their own bills of rights that govern how investigations and discipline must be handled. Teachers have tenure and dismissal protections. When you speak out on a matter of public concern, you have constitutional free-speech protection a private employee simply doesn't. The government being your boss cuts both ways — and more often than people expect, it cuts in your favor.
Here is what makes these cases different. The deadlines can be brutally short: the Government Claims Act — the rule that catches more people than any other — requires some claims against a public entity to be presented in writing within six months. Six months. Not the years you might have against a private company. Some claims private employees rely on don't even exist against the government, which is immune from them — so a case has to be built on the right legal footing from the very start, not patched later. And internal appeals are a minefield of their own: fight your discipline through the civil-service process, lose, and miss the right next step in court, and that result can quietly bar your discrimination case for good — the internal ruling hardens into something a judge treats as decided.
None of that is a reason to give up. It is the reason to bring in a civil-rights lawyer who knows this ground early — before a deadline runs, or a well-meaning wrong turn closes a door on a claim you didn't know you had.
I hear that sentence a lot, and it trips up a lot of good people. For the contract fight — the discipline, the discharge, the pay dispute — it may be exactly right. The grievance process is built for contract disputes under the agreement, it's the right tool for them, and it belongs to the union.
Let me be clear about my own lane: I don't run grievances, disciplinary hearings, Skelly meetings, or internal-affairs investigations. That's the work of your union representative or a labor lawyer. What I handle is the civil-rights side. When the real story underneath the discipline is discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or whistleblowing, that's a separate legal claim. It's an independent right — a grievance doesn't resolve it and can't sign it away. Unions rarely push those claims hard, because it isn't what the grievance is for. But the claim is yours, not theirs, and you can pursue it in court, alongside the grievance or instead of it. That part is exactly what I do. Loop me in before you get too far down an internal process on your own — how it plays out can affect the civil-rights case.
Plenty of plaintiff lawyers won't touch a case against a public employer. The procedures are technical, the deadlines are short, the immunities are maddening, and a single wrong step can sink an otherwise strong claim. So the civil servant, the officer, the teacher, the utility worker calls around and hears no after no — not because the case is weak, but because the ground is treacherous.
I take these cases, because someone should, and because I've put in the time to learn the ground. Tell me what's happening, and I'll give you an honest read on where you stand and what the clock actually looks like — including which doors are already closing.
If your employer is public, a few things matter even more than usual:
Bring me what's happening, and I'll tell you exactly where the deadlines and the danger spots are — that map is most of the value of an early call.
Yes — public employees have strong civil-rights protections. But the rules and deadlines differ from a private-sector case. Some claims must be put in writing within six months — so act quickly and get advice early.
No — that's the arena of your union representative or a labor lawyer. My focus is the civil-rights side: a discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or whistleblower claim. When a situation has both, I take the part that's mine and help keep the rest from quietly damaging it.
Often, yes. A discrimination or retaliation claim is a separate legal right that a grievance generally doesn't resolve or give up. But there are real traps when an internal ruling goes against you. Talk to me before — or right after — you go through an internal process.
For a contract dispute, the union may be exactly the right path. For discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, it usually isn't. Those claims are yours, and unions rarely push them hard through a grievance. You can protect them yourself.
Yes. On top of the usual civil-rights laws, you have added procedural protections — bills of rights for peace officers and firefighters, and tenure and dismissal protections for teachers — that govern how you can be investigated and disciplined.
No. Against a public entity, the window for some claims can be far shorter — as little as six months. Don't assume you have years. Assume you don't, and check.
If you work for the public and you were mistreated, don't let a short clock or a hard reputation stop you from finding out where you stand. The first conversation is free and confidential. There's no cost unless we win.