If you reported a problem at work, asked for something the law allows, or refused to break the law — and soon afterward you were fired, demoted, or pushed out — that may be illegal retaliation. It is the heart of what this office does.
Most of the time, an employer can fire you for a bad reason, an unfair reason, or no reason at all. What it cannot do is punish you for doing something the law protects. Retaliation usually happens in three steps:
If you can point to something you did before things went bad, keep reading. If you cannot, a retaliation case is very hard to make.
Pick the one closest to what you did. Each page explains it in plain English.
You told HR, a supervisor, or a hotline, or used the company's complaint form. This is the most common case we see.
Asking is protected all by itself. You do not have to have complained about anything.
With the EEOC, the New Mexico Human Rights Bureau, or the Texas Workforce Commission.
The State, a county, a city, a school district, or a public university. A strong New Mexico law may apply.
Fraud, patient abuse, unsafe equipment, or a danger to the public, at a private company.
Punishing you for a workers' compensation claim is its own violation.
Working off the clock, changing a record, or anything else that broke the law.
None of these quite fit? Tell us what happened.
Employers almost never write down the real reason. These are the signs that come up again and again:
You do not need to know which law applies. You need to be able to tell us what you did, who you told, and what happened next. Sorting out the law is this office's job.
The review is free and confidential, and there is no obligation.
How long you worked there does not matter. Neither does your job title.
Everything above, in more depth: how retaliation works, what proves it, where this office practices, and the questions people ask most.
New Mexico and Texas are both at-will states. An employer can fire you for a bad reason, an unfair reason, or no reason at all, and most of the time that is lawful. There is no law against a boss who is rude, arbitrary, or wrong.
What the law does forbid is punishing you for exercising a protected right. That includes reporting discrimination, which means being treated worse because of a characteristic the law protects. It also includes reporting sexual harassment, asking for a medical accommodation, filing a workers' compensation claim, reporting something illegal or dangerous, backing up a coworker who complained, and refusing to break the law. When one of those comes first and the punishment follows, the firing is no longer just a management decision. It can be a legal claim.
There is almost always a "before." If you cannot point to something you did before things went bad, the case is very hard. If you can, the next page will tell you quickly whether what happened to you fits.
You complained to HR, to a supervisor, on a hotline, or on the company's own complaint form about sexual harassment, or about being treated worse because of your race, sex, age, disability, religion, or national origin. In New Mexico the list is longer and also covers sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, and military status. Maybe nothing happened to the person you reported, and something happened to you instead. This is the single most common case in this office. Opposing an unlawful discriminatory practice is protected under the New Mexico Human Rights Act, Title VII, and the Texas Labor Code, whether or not the discrimination is ever proven. Read more →
A doctor's note. Time off for treatment. A schedule change, a chair, a lifting restriction, a parking space. Handing over medical records. The request itself is the protected act. You do not have to have complained about anything. Many people fired days after asking have no idea that asking was protected at all. Read more →
You filed with the EEOC, the New Mexico Human Rights Bureau, or the Texas Workforce Commission, or you simply said you were going to. These cases tend to have the shortest gaps and the most direct evidence, because there is no question the employer knew. Read more →
If you reported something unlawful, wasteful, or dangerous and your public employer came after you, the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act may apply, and it is the strongest employment statute in either state. It is not limited to firing, and reporting up your own chain of command counts. Read this one first if a government body signs your paycheck. Read more →
Patient abuse. Fraud. Unsafe trucks or equipment. A practice that put customers or the public at risk. New Mexico recognizes a claim for retaliatory discharge when a firing violates a clear mandate of public policy, and federal law protects a number of specific kinds of reporting. Read more →
Then came the write-up, the schedule cut, or the termination. This is protected on its own in both states: in Texas by Labor Code § 451.001, which also covers hiring a lawyer for your claim, and in New Mexico mainly through a common-law retaliatory discharge claim. Many people never learn this is a separate violation. Read more →
You gave a statement in someone else's investigation. You complained on behalf of a colleague. You were the witness. You are protected exactly as if the complaint had been your own, and the Supreme Court has held this covers an employee who simply answered questions when the employer asked them. Read more →
Work off the clock. Falsify a record. Make a delivery you knew was unlawful. Go along with something that endangered someone. In New Mexico this supports a claim on its own. In Texas the exception exists but is narrow. Read more →
Retaliation is rarely the only claim. It is normally paired with the underlying problem you reported, such as the discrimination, the sexual harassment, or the failure to accommodate. Where the facts allow, it is also paired with a claim that carries damages the anti-discrimination laws do not.
That matters to you in a practical way: you do not need to know which law applies. You need to be able to say what you did, who you told, and what happened next.
It also means the question "who was my employer?" is rarely a barrier. Staffing agencies, PEOs, parent companies, franchises: cases here are routinely brought against more than one company at once, and many clients have no idea which one technically employed them.
There is almost never a smoking gun. These are the threads that, pulled together, make a case:
If it is safe and lawful for you to do so, keep copies of your complaint, your reviews, the termination notice, and any related messages. Do not take anything you are not authorized to access.
Not sure what you are allowed to keep? Ask during your free review before you do anything.
New Mexico and Texas each protect a long list of activities, and federal law adds more. Some of these laws are used all the time. Others rarely are, and a case is sometimes carried by one of the quiet ones.
This office takes cases anywhere in New Mexico, and in Texas only in El Paso County. A New Mexico claim is a New Mexico claim wherever in the state you worked.
Every county, every judicial district, and every public employer in the state. Start here if you worked anywhere in New Mexico.
Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque, APS, UNM, and the largest private workforce in the state.
State agencies, the City and County of Santa Fe, and the school district, the largest concentration of public jobs in New Mexico.
Doña Ana County, NMSU, the city and the school district, and the employers along the southern corridor.
The only Texas county where this office takes cases. Texas law is different, and in several ways narrower; this page explains what is and is not protected there.
Every question on the intake form, listed in advance, so you can read them before you start.
Very possibly. Employers almost always give a lawful-sounding reason. What matters is whether that reason is the real one. If the timing, your record, and how other people were treated all point the other way, the stated reason can be shown to be a pretext. In case after case in this office, the stated reason turned out to be something that could be disproved: a position that was "eliminated" and then filled, a policy that did not exist, a video that showed the opposite of what the employer claimed.
It depends on why. A boss who screams, belittles, singles you out, or makes your life miserable is not breaking the law just by doing that, in New Mexico or in Texas. Mistreatment becomes unlawful when it is sexual harassment, or when it happens because of a characteristic the law protects: your race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, and in New Mexico also your sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or military status. The New Mexico Human Rights Act calls that an "unlawful discriminatory practice," and opposing one is what the law protects. So the question is not how badly you were treated, but whether it was because of who you are.
Generally, no. What the law protects is reporting or opposing in good faith. You can be protected even if the investigation clears everyone, and even if you turn out to have been mistaken. What matters is that you had a reasonable basis for what you believed.
It can. Under federal law the test is whether the employer's action might well have discouraged a reasonable worker from complaining in the first place, so it is not limited to firing. For New Mexico public employees, the Whistleblower Protection Act reaches actions short of termination. That said, the heart of this practice is discharge cases, so the strongest fit is a firing, a layoff, or a forced resignation.
That may be a constructive discharge. If conditions became so intolerable that a reasonable person would have felt forced to resign, the law may treat your resignation as a firing.
No, but it helps a great deal. The strongest cases in this office are the ones where the client used the employer's own complaint form, email system, or hotline, so that the employer's own paperwork became the proof. A spoken complaint to a named supervisor on a date you can identify still works. "I complained to someone at some point" is much harder.
Yes. Length of service has nothing to do with whether a retaliation claim is viable. Cases in this office have been brought for people with a few weeks on the job and for people with three decades. A written contract, a professional title, and a large employer are all beside the point.
Nothing upfront. This office works on a contingency fee and advances the costs of the case. Attorney's fees are owed only if there is a recovery; clients may remain responsible for case costs and expenses.
Some deadlines are much shorter than people expect. The sooner you reach out, the more options are still open. The review is free, confidential, and comes with no obligation.