To file a workplace lawsuit, you generally start with an administrative charge rather than a court complaint: for most discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, you file a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 180 days of the violation (300 days in many states), wait for the agency to investigate or issue a Right to Sue letter, and then file your complaint in federal district court within 90 days of receiving that letter. Wage and hour claims under federal law skip the EEOC step and go straight to court. And if you signed an arbitration agreement when you were hired, you may not be able to file in court at all. The order of operations, the deadlines, and the exceptions all matter, and missing any one of them can end your case before a judge ever reads it.
Check Whether You Can Sue in Court at All
Before you spend time preparing a case, find out whether you signed a mandatory arbitration agreement. Many offer letters and onboarding packets contain one, and if it’s enforceable, it redirects your entire dispute out of the court system and into private arbitration. These agreements are generally upheld when they’re written clearly, don’t force the employee to pay the arbitrator’s fees, and preserve the same remedies a court could award.
One major exception matters here. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, effective March 2022, lets an employee choose to void a predispute arbitration agreement when the claim involves sexual assault or sexual harassment.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 9 USC 402 – No Validity or Enforceability The choice belongs to the employee. Courts are still working out whether voiding the clause for a harassment claim also pulls related claims (like retaliation) into court. If you have a harassment-related dispute and signed an arbitration clause, this law may give you a path back to court.
Confirm You Have a Legal Claim
Not every bad experience at work is illegal. Courts don’t review management decisions just because they feel unfair; a lawsuit requires a violation of a specific statute or breach of contract that caused identifiable harm. The claims that survive tend to fit a handful of categories.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and applies to private employers with 15 or more employees.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19643U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Who Is an Employee Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws The Age Discrimination in Employment Act covers workers 40 and older and applies to employers with at least 20 employees.4U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet: Age Discrimination The Americans with Disabilities Act both prohibits discrimination and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified employees with disabilities unless doing so would be an undue hardship on the business.5ADA.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended
Harassment claims also fall under Title VII. A hostile work environment claim requires conduct severe or pervasive enough to change the conditions of employment. Quid pro quo harassment occurs when job benefits are conditioned on sexual favors, or when rejecting advances leads to a demotion or firing.
Retaliation is one of the most commonly filed charges with the EEOC. Title VII makes it illegal for an employer to take adverse action against you for filing a discrimination charge, participating in an investigation, or opposing practices you reasonably believe are unlawful.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 2000e-3 – Other Unlawful Employment Practices The adverse action doesn’t have to be a firing; reassignment to undesirable shifts, exclusion from meetings, or sudden negative reviews can qualify.
Wage and hour claims live under a different statute. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that non-exempt workers receive at least the federal minimum wage and overtime at one-and-a-half times the regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek.7U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act FLSA cases typically involve misclassification as independent contractors or exempt salaried staff, or off-the-clock work.
Whistleblower protections depend on the industry. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act covers employees of publicly traded companies reporting securities fraud or financial misconduct.8Whistleblower Protection Program. 18 U.S.C. 1514A – Civil Action to Protect Against Retaliation in Fraud Cases The Occupational Safety and Health Act protects workers who file safety complaints or participate in OSHA inspections.9Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Protection From Retaliation for Engaging in Safety and Health Activity Under the OSH Act
Know Your Deadlines
Deadlines are the single most unforgiving feature of employment litigation. Different claims run on different clocks, and confusing them is one of the most damaging mistakes employees make.
For EEOC charges, you generally have 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act to file. That extends to 300 days if a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same type of discrimination.10U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge For age discrimination, the 300-day extension only applies if a state law and state agency cover age discrimination; a local ordinance alone won’t trigger it.
Once the EEOC issues a Right to Sue letter, you have 90 days to file your lawsuit in federal court.11U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Frequently Asked Questions Missing that by even a few days can mean dismissal.
FLSA wage claims have a two-year statute of limitations from the violation, extending to three years if the employer’s violation was willful.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations State wage claims and breach of contract claims follow state statutes of limitations, which vary. Treat every claim as time-sensitive from the day the violation happens.
File a Charge With the EEOC
For most federal discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, you can’t go straight to court. You must first file a Charge of Discrimination with the EEOC. This administrative step is a gatekeeper; without it, a judge will dismiss your case.
The EEOC’s Form 5 is the standard document.13U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC Form 5 Charge of Discrimination It asks for the employer’s name, the dates of the discriminatory conduct, the type of discrimination you’re alleging, and a written description of what happened. If you file with a state or local fair employment practices agency that has a work-sharing agreement with the EEOC, your charge is automatically dual-filed with the federal agency, so you don’t need to submit twice.14U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPAs) and Dual Filing
What the EEOC Does Next
The agency may investigate, offer mediation, or determine whether there’s reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred. If it finds reasonable cause, it issues a Letter of Determination and invites both sides into conciliation, a confidential settlement process.15U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know: The EEOC, Conciliation, and Litigation Neither side can be forced to accept a conciliation agreement.
If conciliation fails, or if the EEOC decides not to pursue the matter, it issues the Right to Sue notice. The 90-day court-filing clock starts when you receive that notice.
Gather Evidence While You Wait
The strongest workplace cases are built before a lawyer is hired. Once you suspect something is wrong, start collecting:
- Employment contracts and offer letters, which establish the baseline terms of your job.
- The employee handbook, since company policies on discipline, harassment reporting, and termination can show the employer violated its own rules.
- Performance reviews. A track record of strong evaluations undermines any claim that your termination was performance-based.
- Pay stubs and time records, essential for calculating lost wages, identifying unpaid overtime, or spotting misclassification.
- Emails, texts, and messages. Save copies outside your work email before you lose access.
- Names and personal contact information for coworkers who witnessed the conduct or received similar treatment.
Keep one other category of records that employees routinely overlook: your job search. If your case involves a termination, you have a legal duty to mitigate damages by looking for comparable work. Keep records of every application, recruiter contact, and interview. Courts will reduce back pay if you can’t show reasonable effort to find new employment.
File the Lawsuit in Federal Court
Once you have the Right to Sue letter, or have confirmed your claim isn’t subject to the administrative exhaustion requirement (as with most FLSA cases), the next step is a formal complaint in court.
The complaint lays out the legal basis for your claims and the facts supporting them. It’s filed with the clerk of the appropriate federal district court along with a filing fee of $350.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1914 – District Court Filing and Miscellaneous Fees After filing, you must formally serve the complaint and summons on the employer, usually through a professional process server delivering the documents to the company’s registered agent.17United States Courts. Civil Cases
The employer then has 21 days after being served to file an answer or a motion to dismiss.18United States Courts. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 12 If the employer waived formal service under FRCP Rule 4, that response deadline extends to 60 days. The answer addresses each allegation in the complaint, and this exchange marks the official start of the litigation.
What Happens After You File
Discovery
Discovery is where both sides gather evidence from each other, and it’s often where employment cases are won or lost. The tools include depositions (recorded, sworn interviews), written interrogatories (questions answered under oath), requests for the production of documents (company emails, personnel files, internal investigation records), and requests for admission.19U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A Guide to the Discovery Process for Unrepresented Complainants
Employers sometimes resist turning over damaging internal records. You try to resolve the dispute informally first; if the employer still won’t comply, you file a motion to compel. A judge can order production and impose sanctions, which can include barring the employer from using certain evidence or entering a default judgment.
Summary Judgment
Before trial, the employer will almost certainly file a motion for summary judgment, asking the judge to decide the case without a trial because there’s no genuine dispute about the key facts. If no reasonable jury could find in your favor based on the evidence from discovery, the judge grants the motion and the case ends.20Legal Information Institute. Rule 56 – Summary Judgment This is where many employment cases end. Surviving summary judgment usually means the employer starts taking settlement negotiations seriously.
What You Can Recover
The point of a workplace lawsuit is to make you whole, meaning to put you back in the position you’d be in if the violation hadn’t happened. The remedies depend on the type of claim.
Back pay covers wages and benefits lost between the illegal action and the judgment or settlement. If returning to your old job isn’t realistic, a court may award front pay to cover future lost earnings, though those awards are harder to calculate.
Compensatory damages cover emotional distress and other non-economic harms. Punitive damages are available when the employer acted with malice or reckless disregard for your rights. Federal law caps the combined total of compensatory and punitive damages based on employer size, ranging from $50,000 for employers with 15 to 100 employees up to $300,000 for employers with more than 500.21Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination The caps apply to Title VII and ADA claims. They don’t apply to back pay, and they don’t apply to claims under the ADEA or Section 1981 (which covers race discrimination without a damage cap).
FLSA cases have their own structure. If an employer fails to pay required wages, you can recover both the unpaid amount and an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the recovery. The employer can avoid liquidated damages only by proving the violation was made in good faith.
Most federal employment statutes let the prevailing employee recover attorney’s fees and litigation costs from the employer. That includes hourly charges, filing costs, expert witness fees, and deposition expenses. One tax note worth flagging now: attorney’s fees in employment discrimination cases get an above-the-line deduction, so you aren’t taxed on the portion of a settlement paid directly to your lawyer.22U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Rights Tax Relief Provision of the American Jobs Creation Act How a settlement allocates payments across back pay, emotional distress, and other categories makes a real difference to your tax bill, so review a draft with a tax professional before signing.23Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments
Paying Your Attorney
Most employment plaintiffs don’t pay their lawyers by the hour. The standard arrangement is a contingency fee, where the attorney takes a percentage of the recovery and gets nothing if you lose. In employment cases, that percentage typically runs between 33% and 40% of the total recovery, often depending on the stage at which the case resolves.
The contingency fee and court-ordered attorney’s fees are separate things. If you win and the court awards fees from the employer, your fee agreement determines how that award interacts with the percentage your lawyer takes from the overall recovery. Read the agreement carefully, and ask specifically how court-awarded fees are handled before you sign.