Damages Available For Retaliation And Whistleblowing Claims
How much you might collect if you win a retaliation or whistleblowing case depends on the basis and strength of your claims.
For most wrongful termination cases, a winning employee can ask for:
- Back Pay: wages and benefits you lost as a result of being wrongfully fired
- Reinstatement or Front Pay: you can ask the court to give you back your job or, if that’s not feasible, to award you the wages you will lose going forward until you find a new job
- Out-of-Pocket Losses: any expenses you had to pay as a result of being fired, such as the cost of searching for a new job, attorneys’ fees, and court costs.
In some cases, you might also be entitled to damages for “pain and suffering,” for the emotional and physical harm caused by your employer’s actions. Punitive damages, intended to punish your employer for particularly egregious misconduct, may also be available.
And, in some whistleblower cases, you might be eligible for a fee or bounty for protecting the public from wrongdoing. (This might be a set amount per violation, a percentage of the total sanction against the employer, or some other amount determined by the statute or the court.)
Your lawyer can explain how much you might expect to win in your case.
