Columbus Wrongful Termination Attorney

Was Your Columbus Firing Actually Illegal?

Ohio is an at-will employment state. That single fact protects most firings—but it doesn’t protect all of them. State and federal law carve out specific exceptions that turn an ordinary termination into a wrongful one you can sue over.

If you were fired because of who you are, what you reported, what leave you took, or because you refused to do something illegal, your termination may be unlawful. The challenge is recognizing which exception applies, meeting Ohio’s strict procedural deadlines, and gathering evidence before your former employer destroys it.

Michael D. Christensen Law Offices LLC has been protecting Central Ohio workers for decades. We investigate the real reason behind your firing, file the required administrative charges, and pursue every available form of compensation under Ohio and federal law.

What Counts as Wrongful Termination in Ohio?

Wrongful termination occurs when an employer fires an employee in violation of one of the following protections:

Federal and Ohio Anti-Discrimination Laws

You cannot be fired because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), age (40+), disability, genetic information, or military status. These protections come from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA, the ADEA, USERRA, and Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4112.

Retaliation for Protected Activity

Your employer cannot fire you for filing a workers’ compensation claim, reporting harassment, opposing discrimination, participating in an EEOC investigation, requesting FMLA leave, reporting wage theft, or filing a complaint with OSHA. Retaliation is one of the most common grounds for a wrongful termination claim in Ohio.

Whistleblower Reports

Ohio’s whistleblower statute, ORC § 4113.52, protects employees who report violations of state or federal law—but only if you follow its strict written-notification procedure first.

Public Policy Violations

Ohio’s public policy exception, established by the Ohio Supreme Court in Greeley v. Miami Valley Maintenance Contractors (1990), prohibits firing you for refusing to commit perjury, refusing to violate the law, exercising a statutory right, or any other reason that undermines a clear public policy of Ohio.

Breach of Employment Contract

If you have a written employment contract, collective bargaining agreement, or even an implied contract through employee handbook promises, your employer can’t fire you in violation of those terms.

FMLA Interference and Retaliation

Eligible employees of covered employers are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Firing you for taking that leave—or interfering with your right to take it—violates federal law. Learn more on our FMLA attorney page.

Common Wrongful Termination Scenarios We See in Columbus

We hear these patterns from Franklin County employees almost every week:

• The post-leave firing—you return from FMLA, maternity, or medical leave and are suddenly “restructured” out of a job
• The workers’ comp termination—you filed a comp claim, and within weeks you’re written up for things that were tolerated for years
• The pretextual layoff—you’re fired during a “reduction in force,” but younger, white, male, or non-disabled coworkers are kept
• The whistleblower firing—you reported safety violations, accounting fraud, harassment, or wage theft, and were terminated soon after
• The discriminatory PIP—you’re put on a Performance Improvement Plan with impossible benchmarks shortly after disclosing a pregnancy, disability, or filing a complaint
• The forced resignation (constructive discharge)—conditions become so intolerable that any reasonable person would quit

If any of these sound familiar, document everything immediately and contact us before key evidence disappears.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission Charge: A Required First Step

Ohio’s Employment Law Uniformity Act, effective April 2021, changed how discrimination-based wrongful termination claims work in Ohio:

• You must file a charge with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) first and receive a “right to sue” letter before filing in court
• The statute of limitations is two years (cut from six years), tolled while the OCRC investigates
• Individual supervisors are no longer personally liable for discrimination, with limited exceptions
• Employers have an affirmative defense to hostile work environment claims when they maintain proper anti-harassment policies and the employee failed to use them

Federal claims follow a different track. To sue under Title VII, the ADA, or the ADEA, you must file a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 300 days of the discriminatory act in Ohio. After the EEOC issues a right-to-sue letter, you have 90 days to file in federal court.

Other types of wrongful termination claims have their own deadlines:

• Workers’ compensation retaliation under ORC § 4123.90—written notice to the employer within 90 days; lawsuit within 180 days
• Whistleblower under ORC § 4113.52—written report to the employer first, then 180 days to sue
• Public policy (Greeley) tort claims—generally 4 years under ORC § 2305.09
• Breach of employment contract—eight years for written contracts; six years for oral contracts

Miss the deadline that applies to your claim and you lose your case, no matter how clear the evidence is. This is why same-week consultation matters.

What to Do in the First 7 Days After Being Fired

The decisions you make in the week after your termination shape the strength of your case:

• Don’t sign anything the employer hands you at termination, especially a severance agreement or release of claims. You typically have 21 to 45 days to consider it.
• Request your personnel file in writing. Ohio doesn’t legally compel employers to provide it, but most will, and the file often reveals contradictions with their stated firing reason.
• Save everything you legally can—emails already on personal devices, performance reviews, text messages, pay stubs, and any documentation of the reason given for your firing.
• Write a timeline while memory is fresh: dates of complaints, names of witnesses, exact wording of comments made to you.
• Avoid social media posts about the termination or your former employer.
• File for unemployment through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Unemployment proceedings can produce admissions useful in your wrongful termination case.
• Call an employment attorney before talking to HR, the EEOC, or signing anything.

Damages Available in Columbus Wrongful Termination Cases

Compensation depends on the type of claim and the strength of evidence, but typically includes:

Back Pay

Wages, benefits, bonuses, and commissions you lost from your termination through the date of judgment or settlement.

Front Pay

Future earnings you would have received but for the wrongful termination, especially when reinstatement isn’t realistic.

Emotional Distress and Compensatory Damages

For anxiety, depression, humiliation, sleep loss, and damage to professional reputation. Federal Title VII caps compensatory and punitive damages combined between $50,000 and $300,000 depending on employer size; Ohio claims may allow higher recovery in certain cases.

Punitive Damages

Available when the employer acted with malice or reckless indifference to your rights, often present in cases where leadership ignored repeated complaints.

Attorney’s Fees and Costs

Most federal and Ohio employment statutes shift attorney’s fees to the losing employer when you prevail.

Reinstatement

Returning to your job (or an equivalent one) with full seniority and benefits, where appropriate.

How We Build Wrongful Termination Cases

Free Case Evaluation

Bring every document you have—employment contract, offer letter, handbook, recent reviews, written warnings, the termination letter, and your timeline. We start with a free case evaluation and an honest assessment of whether you have a viable claim.

Pre-Charge Investigation

We pull together your evidence, request additional records, and compare your treatment to similarly situated coworkers. This stage often produces the “comparator” evidence that wins discrimination cases.

Filing With OCRC, EEOC, or Court

We file the right charge in the right venue under the right statute, and within every applicable deadline. For some claims (public policy, contract, certain wage claims), we file directly in court.

Discovery and Negotiation

Once your case is active, we use depositions, document requests, and interrogatories to expose what really happened. Most cases settle once the evidence is on the table.

Trial

When employers refuse to make a fair offer, we try cases in front of Franklin County and federal juries. Our willingness to go the distance is what produces better settlements—and bigger verdicts when settlement fails.

Why Choose Michael D. Christensen Law Offices LLC

Attorney Michael D. Christensen leads a Columbus practice that combines decades of Central Ohio courtroom experience with the personal attention you won’t find at a high-volume firm. Wrongful termination cases require:

• Detailed knowledge of post-Uniformity Act OCRC and EEOC procedure
• Skill in identifying every available statutory and common-law claim
• Willingness to take on Fortune 500 employers and their defense firms

We handle wrongful termination cases on a contingency fee basis—no upfront cost, no hourly billing, and no fee unless we recover money for you. You also get direct attorney access throughout the case, not handoffs to junior staff.

Our Columbus employment law team handles the full range of workplace claims, including workplace harassment, disability discrimination, and sexual harassment. If your firing connects to a workplace injury, our workers’ compensation attorneys coordinate both claims under one roof.

Talk to a Columbus Wrongful Termination Attorney Today

Every wrongful termination claim runs on a clock. Some deadlines hit at 90 days. Others at 180 days. Most at two years. By the time you “wait and see,” critical evidence is often gone and witnesses have moved on.

Call Michael D. Christensen Law Offices LLC at 866-866-8058 (local 614-300-5000) for a free, confidential consultation, or contact us online 24/7. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.