I was fired, from a county job, really for no reason. They made up a number of reasons ranging from a simple mistake they called “falsification of records”, not taking the trash out one night and labeled it “insubordination”, and asking questions which they labeled as “creating a hostile work environment”, which has a chilling implication of violations of my first amendment rights.
The reality was that I was doing my bosses job, he was in danger of being found out, and I was finding a number of things wrong with one of my peer’s work some of which contributed to the death of a patient. I followed the proper chain of command for these, but since I was the only one complaining, I was the problem and they let me go.
I retained an attorney to represent me during the investigation while I was off on paid administrative leave. Long story short, my attorney and the employment attorney the county hired both advised them that they can’t terminate me, and that they weren’t following the correct processes which was a violation of my rights.
An elected official told my attorney he didn’t care and he fired me anyway.
So, my attorney is going through all of the processes of demanding records, etc, and the employment attorney knows this is a big precursor to a lawsuit. Their attorney is insistent that we don’t need to file anything and we can work things out without filing. I also have grounds for a wage claim against the county due to the way they figured OT.
I don’t know what would be an appropriate settlement to ask for. At the end of my employment my base salary was $75,000, but I was pulling down $125,000 with OT and extra shifts.
Thoughts on what to go after for a settlement?