Recent Answers to Complaint Letter Law Questions

Merry K.

Answered Sep 3, 2024

If there are at least 8 employees, you can file a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission; if there are at least 15 employees, you can ALSO file with the EEOC (HRC will do this for you if you ask when you file with them). If you work in certain large cities in WA, you can also file with city or county anti-discrimination agencies. Evaluating your complaint is something that I can't do through this question/answer format, but from what you've said so far, it sounds as though you have a valid complaint - I'm not sure, however, whether you can file in regards to anything that happened more than 180 days ago (but may be able to include that if it's part of a pattern/practice). I don't know whether any of the other WA attorneys signed up with CC have my level of employment and discrimination experience, but you can find such attorneys through NELA.org, a national organization of employment attorneys. I also want to let you know that when you file with a government agency, the agency is neutral; they don't represent you. Also, there are long, long waits, and they will try to push you toward a fast settlement. It is a mandatory prerequisite to file with EEOC prior to filing an employment discrimination case in federal court, but for state court there are no such prerequisites. I'm not taking new work until the end of October and no longer engage in litigation, but would be happy to review the situation with you as part of a Contracts Counsel project in late September as a one-hour or so consultation. Unfortunately, I won't have any real free time until then. Merry A. Kogut keypenlaw@gmail.com