How to Detect Age Discrimination in New York
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a while ago entitled "Out of Work, Out of Options and Over the Hill" It focused on Henry Dietz who is 55 and out of work for 20 months. Now he is broke, facing foreclosure and cannot pay his kids college tuition.
Losing your job in your 50s or 60s can be financially devastating because finding comparable employment is often impossible. If this happens to you, you need to know if age discrimination was a factor.
Age discrimination cases produce the highest verdicts among all other employment cases. The median age discrimination verdict nationally is $332,000 according to a study by Jury Verdict Research. Age discrimination verdicts ranged from $25,000 to $53 million from 2003 to 2009. Most age discrimination cases settle before trial and settlements are typically lower than what is obtained from a jury verdict.
How can you tell if you were a victim of age discrimination? Here are a few things to look for:
- Comments showing age bias
- Encouragement to retire
- Replaced by a younger person
- Reduction in force that favors younger workers
- Pattern of favoritism toward younger employees
The factors above indicate age discrimination, but evidence of age discrimination can come in any form. We recently filed a case on behalf of a 68 year old woman who worked for a company in New York for 17 years. The President of the company repeatedly ask the our client when she was going to retire and told her that he would fire her if she did not retire. Eventually the company told her that they were "retiring" her, but she did not want to retire. The so called retirement was really just a termination based on her age. She was retired against her will. Our client was fired because of her age and that kind of conduct is prohibited by the Age Discrimination in Employment act. Our client is not likely to get another comparable job because of her age but she wanted to continue working so we will be seeking a result that will provide her with the lost income. If you have seen these signs and have lost your job, you might have an age discrimination case. Call us for a free age discrimination case evaluation or fill out the form to the left and we will contact you. We will go over your case with you and help you determine if you have a case. There is no charge or obligation for the consultation.
