If you were fired and you know in your gut that something was wrong, you are probably right. In San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and throughout Northern California, employers terminate workers illegally every day — using discrimination, retaliation, or abuse of power to push people out. Most of those workers do nothing, because they do not know their rights or they are afraid to act.

My name is Arlo Uriarte. I am an employment attorney at Liberation Law Group and I have spent over 30 years filing wrongful termination cases on behalf of workers in San Francisco and throughout California. We are a plaintiff's firm — we fight for workers, we file cases, and we do not defend employers. Our office is at 2760 Mission Street in the Mission District, three minutes from 24th Street BART. We speak Spanish, we know our community, and we know exactly how to build a case that wins.

If you were terminated in the last few days or weeks, time matters. Call today for a free consultation in Spanish or English — available 24/7, no cost, no obligation, regardless of immigration status.

California Is an At-Will State — But the Exceptions Are What Matter

When you tell someone you were wrongfully terminated, they often say: "California is at-will — they can fire you for any reason." That is technically true — but only in part. At-will employment has major, important exceptions, and those exceptions cover the vast majority of wrongfully terminated workers who call us.

Yes, California is at-will. Your employer can, in theory, terminate you without giving a reason. But they cannot terminate you for these reasons:

If your termination falls into any of these categories, you have a wrongful termination case under California law — regardless of at-will status.

The trap employers use: they claim you were fired for "performance issues," "restructuring," or "budget cuts" — when the real reason is one of the prohibited ones above. At Liberation Law Group, we have spent 30 years dismantling those pretexts before juries in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area.

Types of Wrongful Termination We Fight in San Francisco Every Week

Termination for Discrimination

Discrimination is the most common underlying cause of wrongful terminations we see. And it almost never looks like an employer explicitly stating a discriminatory reason. What it looks like is a longer pattern: treating you worse than other employees for months, documenting you for small things they ignore in others, assigning you impossible tasks designed to make you fail, and eventually firing you once they have built enough paper to justify it. All disguised as "performance issues."

• You are fired for being Latino, Mexican, or Central American — or simply for having an accent
• You are terminated for being pregnant or for having taken maternity leave
• You are let go for your age — "no longer a cultural fit" — when you are over 40
• You are fired for a disability or for having requested a medical accommodation
• You are terminated for your sexual orientation or gender identity

Learn more about all types of employment discrimination protected under California's FEHA.

Termination for Retaliation

The second most common type. You did something the law protects — you complained about sexual harassment, reported that you were not being paid correctly, flagged dangerous working conditions — and shortly after, you were terminated for "another reason."

• You are fired after reporting sexual harassment or discrimination to HR
• You are terminated one week after complaining that you were not receiving overtime pay
• You are let go for reporting dangerous working conditions to OSHA or Cal/OSHA
• You are fired for refusing to participate in something illegal your supervisor requested
• You are terminated for supporting a coworker's discrimination complaint

Timing tells the story. If your termination happened within three months of a protected complaint, that timing is powerful evidence of retaliation that is very difficult for an employer to explain away before a Bay Area jury.

Read about your full legal protections against workplace retaliation in California.

Termination for Public Policy Violations

California specifically protects workers who are terminated for doing things society considers important. You cannot legally be fired for:

• Reporting crimes or legal violations to authorities — protected whistleblowing
• Taking jury duty (jury service is legally protected)
• Serving in the military or National Guard
• Voting or participating in protected political activities
• Refusing to do something that violates the law
• Taking legally protected sick leave or family leave

Pretext — How Employers Try to Cover Up Illegal Terminations

In over 30 years of filing cases in San Francisco, I have seen every excuse employers use. There is a clear pattern — and when you see it laid out before a jury, it is almost impossible to defend.

The typical pattern: a worker does something legally protected — complains about discrimination, reports wage theft, announces a pregnancy. And suddenly the employer "discovers" problems that were never mentioned before. Performance reviews that were exemplary for years suddenly become "unacceptable." Suddenly there are "attitude problems" nobody ever documented. Suddenly the company needs to "restructure" precisely that person's position.

That is called pretext — a false reason to cover the real, illegal reason. And finding and exposing pretext is exactly what we do.

The most common pretext signals we find in our cases:

• Performance reviews were positive right up until shortly after the protected complaint or pregnancy announcement
• Other employees with similar or worse performance were not terminated
• The time between the protected event and the termination is suspiciously short
• The verbal reasons given do not match what is in the written documentation
• The employer did not follow its own progressive discipline procedures before terminating
• The supervisor who made the decision made discriminatory comments before the termination

Wrongful Termination by Industry — What We See in San Francisco

Restaurants — Mission District, North Beach, Castro, Tenderloin

San Francisco's restaurant industry — from the kitchens of North Beach near Washington Square Park to the taquerias on 24th Street in the Mission District — is where we file the most wrongful termination cases involving discrimination and retaliation. Pregnant servers who are suddenly "unreliable." Latino cooks fired for "attitude" after complaining that tip pools were being mismanaged. Kitchen workers who lose their jobs days after reporting sexual harassment. The pattern is consistent across the city.

Cleaning and Building Services — Financial District, SoMa, Office Buildings

Cleaning workers in the office buildings of the Financial District near the Embarcadero and in SoMa, where hundreds of tech companies occupy offices near the Moscone Center, are particularly vulnerable to wrongful termination. They often work alone, frequently are immigrants, and employers count on them not knowing their rights. Terminations following complaints about working conditions or pay practices are common in this industry — and they are exactly the kind of retaliation cases we file.

Hotels — Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown

Hotel housekeeping workers around Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf face wrongful terminations for racial discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation for reporting harassment. "Poor performance" is the standard cover — but when we examine the record, the evaluations were consistently positive right up until the day the worker reported something.

Construction — Mission Bay, Dogpatch, Bayview-Hunters Point

With major construction underway near Chase Center in Mission Bay and in the Candlestick development in Bayview-Hunters Point, wrongful terminations of Latino construction workers are common, almost always disguised as "safety violations" or "communication problems." We have represented workers in the Bay Area construction industry fired immediately after reporting dangerous conditions to Cal/OSHA — making them protected whistleblowers under California law.

Technology and Offices — SoMa, Financial District, South Bay

Wrongful terminations in tech frequently take the form of "layoffs" that are actually age or gender discrimination, or "performance improvement plans" designed to create paper trails justifying terminations that were already decided for discriminatory reasons. "Layoffs" that disproportionately affect employees over 40, women, or Latino workers are legally suspect under California's FEHA.

Retail — Excelsior, Richmond District, Bayview

Retail workers in neighborhoods like the Excelsior and Richmond District face wrongful terminations for racial discrimination and retaliation with regularity. Latina cashiers fired for "attitude problems" when the real problem is that they spoke Spanish with Latino customers. Older workers replaced with younger employees after years of excellent service. We file these cases throughout San Francisco.

Real Cases We Have Filed — Real Results for Workers Like You

Every one of these cases started the same way: a terminated worker who thought they had no options. Every one ended differently than the employer expected.

* Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Each case is unique.

What to Do Immediately After a Wrongful Termination

Time matters more than most people realize. Employers know that evidence disappears — emails get deleted, witnesses change jobs, memories fade. Here is what to do right now:

What Evidence Do You Need for a Wrongful Termination Case?

The most common thing we hear: "I don't have proof." The reality is that you almost never need a smoking-gun email where a manager says "I'm firing you because of your race." Those are extremely rare — discriminating employers do not leave that kind of trail. Cases are built with circumstantial evidence — a pattern that speaks for itself.

The most powerful evidence in wrongful termination cases:

• Positive performance reviews prior to termination — the best evidence that the stated reasons are pretext
• The timing of the termination — exactly how close was it to your protected complaint or pregnancy announcement?
• Different treatment of comparable employees — coworkers with similar performance who were not fired
• Emails and messages — communications showing the pattern of discrimination or retaliation
• Witnesses — coworkers who observed the differential treatment or heard discriminatory comments
• Documentation of internal complaints — records of complaints you filed with HR or management
• The employee handbook — to show that the employer did not follow its own progressive discipline procedures

If you have none of this, do not give up. Through legal discovery, we can compel the employer to produce all internal emails about your termination, performance evaluations for all employees in your position, management communications, and any other evidence the employer would prefer to keep hidden. We have won cases that began with the worker having no documents whatsoever.

California Legal Deadlines — Act Before It Is Too Late

California has strict deadlines for wrongful termination cases. Missing them can permanently eliminate your right to file — regardless of how strong your case is.

3 years from termination to file a discrimination-based wrongful termination lawsuit directly in court under FEHA. In San Francisco: San Francisco Superior Court at 400 McAllister Street, near Civic Center BART. In Napa: Napa County Superior Court at 825 Brown Street. In San Jose: Santa Clara County Superior Court at 191 North First Street, near SAP Center.

1 year to file an administrative complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) at 455 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.

300 days to file with the EEOC (federal) at 450 Golden Gate Avenue.

3 years generally for California Labor Code violations — cases involving termination as retaliation for wage complaints.

Even with a three-year statute of limitations, we recommend calling within the first 30 days. Evidence is freshest. Witnesses remember the most. The employer has not had time to build its defense narrative. And we have the most strategic options available to us.

How Much Can You Recover for Wrongful Termination?

No honest attorney can promise a specific amount. What I can tell you is what California law makes available — and it is among the most generous in the country.

In a wrongful termination case under FEHA, you may recover:

• Back pay — everything you lost from the date of termination through the resolution of the case
• Front pay — future earnings you will lose if the termination damaged your career trajectory
• Reinstatement — in some cases we can get your job back with full back pay
• Emotional distress damages with no cap — California's FEHA places no ceiling on these amounts
• Punitive damages — to punish employers for malicious or fraudulent conduct
• Attorney fees paid by the employer — in most successful employment cases

Typical ranges we have seen in Bay Area cases: $50,000–$150,000 for cases with discrimination or retaliation; $100,000–$250,000 for cases with extended mistreatment; $200,000–$500,000+ for severe multi-violation cases. Cases that also involve wage theft are frequently significantly higher.

In 2024, Liberation Law Group recovered $1.8 million in wrongful termination cases alone, with a 90% rate of cases won or favorably resolved.

Your Rights as an Undocumented Worker

This is the conversation we have most often with our community. And I want to be completely direct.

California's FEHA protects every worker in the state regardless of immigration status. If you were wrongfully terminated, you have the same legal rights as any other California worker — regardless of whether you have documentation.

More importantly: if your employer threatens to report you to immigration authorities to silence you — whether to prevent a complaint or a lawsuit — that is an additional, independent violation under California Labor Code Section 1019, carrying penalties of up to $10,000 per threat.

At Liberation Law Group, every case is handled with absolute confidentiality. We never ask about immigration status and we never share that information with anyone. Our office is in the Mission District — the heart of San Francisco's Latino community — and we have been part of that community for over 30 years.

What Our Clients Say

Where We Serve — San Francisco and All of Northern California

Our office is at 2760 Mission Street, Second Floor in the Mission District — three minutes from 24th Street Mission BART, around the corner from Dolores Park and the 24th Street Latino Cultural District. We handle cases throughout the region:

San Francisco: Mission District, Excelsior, Tenderloin, SoMa (near Moscone Center), Financial District (near the Embarcadero and Ferry Building), North Beach, Bayview-Hunters Point, Castro, Union Square, Potrero Hill, Outer Sunset, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley.

Santa Clara County: San Jose (downtown near the Superior Court at 191 North First Street near SAP Center, East San Jose, Santana Row area), Santa Clara, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Mountain View.

Alameda County: Oakland (especially Fruitvale — 53.8% Hispanic — near the Fruitvale BART station), Hayward (40.7% Latino), Fremont, Berkeley, San Leandro, Pleasanton, Union City.

North Bay: Napa County (35.4% Latino — city of Napa near the Superior Court at 825 Brown Street), Sonoma County (28.9% Latino), Santa Rosa, Marin County, Vallejo, American Canyon, Solano County, Fairfield.

San Mateo County: Daly City, South San Francisco, San Mateo, Redwood City, East Palo Alto.

Central Coast: Monterey County, Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, Salinas.

Frequently Asked Questions About Wrongful Termination in California

Related pages: Workplace Retaliation · Workplace Discrimination · Sexual Harassment · Wage Theft · Gender Discrimination · Pregnancy Discrimination