The laws governing relationships between employees and employers are often complex, difficult to understand, and unforgiving if a mistake is made. If you feel that your rights have been violated, the first thing you should do – and you should do it as quickly as possible – is contact an attorney to discuss the matter. You may have heard the term “statute of limitations”. A statute of limitations is a law stating that lawsuits must be brought within specific amounts of time. The length of time is determined by the subject of the suit. If a plaintiff does not bring a lawsuit within the specified amount of time, he or she loses the right to sue – forever. In employment-related cases the plaintiff (the employee or former employee) is often required to bring a complaint before the appropriate administrative agencies (usually the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (“PHRC”) and/or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) before taking the case to court. Once the agencies have had an opportunity to investigate the case, the plaintiff has the option of taking the case to court. If the plaintiff fails to take the case before the administrative agencies within the required time, he or she will lose the right to sue. The administrative proceedings that follow a complaint vary widely with the different agencies involved and the type of complaint. However, in many cases the relevant regulations require that the employee start the administrative claim no more than one hundred and eighty days (six months) from the time of the action leading to the complaint. In practice, this means that the real “statute of limitations” for many employment actions is six months- much shorter than that for almost any other kind of lawsuit. The first step in protecting your rights is to be aware that you have a very limited of time in which to act. If you think you might have a case, contact a lawyer (or two) NOW. If you are close to the six month deadline – or if you cannot get a lawyer to accept your case – contact the appropriate agencies directly and tell them you want to start a case. You can have a lawyer get involved later in the process, but it is crucial to protect your rights NOW. Contact information for the PHRC and the EEOC is here:
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission
Riverfront Office Center, 1101-1125 S. Front Street, 5th Floor Harrisburg, PA 17104-2515 Voice: (717) 787-9784 / Text Telephone (TT/TTY): (717) 787-7279
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Philadelphia Office
801 Market Street, Suite 1300 Philadelphia, PA 19107-3127
Phone: 1-800-669-4000
Fax: 215-440-2606
TTY: 1-800-669-6820