When you experience discrimination at work, first stop should be HR, though you have to be careful about how you approach it.
But what happens if HR doesn't solve the problem after a reasonable period of time? Your next stop is an employment discrimination lawsuit. My best advice for that is to find a lawyer who has experience in the area, and is going to charge you a fee you can afford, or, better yet, will take the case on a contingency, meaning no legal fee unless an award is given.
You should keep in mind that a contingency fee is a business arrangement. That means that the lawyer who accepts a case under such an arrangement is betting that there will be an award, and that it will be enough to cover the time and office expenses spent on the case. This lawyer is generally not on a crusade for justice, except to the extent that it means getting you some compensation.
It is a good idea to contact legal organizations, like Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the Transgender Law Center, or the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, to see if they are interested in the case. Their resources are limited, however, so they only take on cases that have a good chance of success and fit within certain legal priorities that the organization considers most important for the community. They can take on only a fraction of the cases flooding into their offices. Even they, however, won't necessarily want to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some cases are just better off being settled, because litigation is always a roll of the dice.
Cross-posted from Bilerico.com. Click here to read more...
