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When to Take Legal Action

Many employees are driven to file lawsuits because their employers minimized or dismissed their complaints about illegal mistreatment, or the employers branded them as troublemakers for fingering a rainmaker.

Even still, before you take your fight to court, make sure you’ve exhausted all other options. Did you tell your supervisor? If she did nothing, did you move up the ladder?

Even lawyers who represent employees sound cautionary notes about the high cost of such lawsuits in time, money, and privacy. Nothing should stop you from taking action when your workplace rights have been trampled. But consider a lawsuit only after you see no other way to stop illegal behavior.