The following statutes of limitations apply to various employment and wrongful termination cases:
Statutes of Limitations for Cases Under FEHA/FMLA/ADA:
Before you file a lawsuit for violation of FEHA, FMLA, ADA, and most other anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation laws, you must first “exhaust administrative remedies”. This means you must first file a charge of discrimination against the subject employer within three years of the termination date or the date of the most recent discriminatory incident with either DFEH or EEOC. Once DFEH or EEOC issues a right-to-sue letter, you will have either one year (DFEH right-to-sue letter) or 90 days (EEOC) to file a lawsuit in court. Since you have more time to file a lawsuit with the DFEH right-to-sue letter, this is generally the preferred agency to deal with.
If a charge of discrimination is not filed timely with either DFEH or EEOC, it will extinguish most (but not all) discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, so complying with this deadline is critical in most employment cases. If you file a lawsuit for discrimination without obtaining a right-to-sue letter from one of those agencies within the prescribed time limits, your case will be subject to dismissal. This means that if, let’s say, you were fired on January 1, 2020, you would have until December 31, 2022 to file a charge of discrimination with DFEH or EEOC. Once you receive your right-to-sue letter, you will have either one year (DFEH) or 90 days (EEOC) to file a lawsuit from the date those letters are issued.
Once you file a charge of discrimination with one of the above agencies, you may or may not want to wait for them to investigate your case. Since, in the vast majority of cases, the whole process is just a formality, and these agencies don’t really do much to investigate before issuing a right-to-sue letter, it’s a good idea to consider requesting an immediate right-to-sue letter, so you can file a lawsuit in court instead of waiting for many months to get the same right-to-sue letter and have the whole process delayed for no good reason. Getting an immediate right-to-sue letter is especially good if you have a strong case and sound evidence to support your claims. In other situations, it might be better strategically to allow the agency to investigate and not rush to get a right-to-sue letter.
Some retaliation claims have a three-year filing deadline and don’t have an administrative exhaustion requirement, i.e., a requirement to file a charge with either DFEH or EEOC.
Statute of Limitations for Defamation Claims
A defamation claim must be filed within one year of a defamatory statement being published (orally or in writing). Please note that the time must be counted from the date the actual statement was made. If the defamatory statement is contained in the termination letter, then that’s the applicable date for the purposes of calculating a deadline to file a claim. If the false statement was published later, then that later date counts. Defamation claims don’t require any pre-filing with EEOC or DFEH.
Statutes of Limitations for Unpaid Wages / Unpaid Overtime Claims
Generally, there is a three-year statute of limitations on unpaid wage and overtime claims (and the rest of California labor code violations). In some cases, a violation of Bus & Prof Code 17200 can be added to the unpaid wages claim in court, which has a four-year statute of limitation. This last claim is not available if the case is handled by the Labor Commissioner / DLSE.
If you are planning to bring a claim for unpaid wages and overtime, you must keep in mind that you can only go three (or in some cases) four years back in claiming wages from the date of filing. Thus, if you file your case on April 1, 2015, you can only claim unpaid wages from as far back as March 31, 2012 (or, in some cases, if the case is brought in court – March 31, 2011). Thus, in cases where an employee worked for the employer for longer than three years and wishes to bring a claim for unpaid wages for all those years, he should file his claim as soon as possible, as every day he is potentially losing a day of claimable unpaid wages.
None of the wage claims require pre-filing with DFEH or EEOC.
Statutes of Limitations for Breach of Contract Claims
There is a four-year statute of limitations for breach of written contract claims and a two-year filing deadline for breach of oral contract claims. The time runs from the day the contract was allegedly breached. Prefiling with DFEH or EEOC is not necessary.
Statutes of Limitations for Fraud Claims
The deadline to bring a fraud claim is three years from the date fraud was committed or reasonably discovered. No pre-filing with DFEH or EEOC is necessary.
Other types of violations have their own filing deadlines. For instance, a two-year statute of limitations applies to constitutional claims such as the violation of 42 USC 1983. No pre-filing with DFEH or EEOC is needed.
Consult an experienced employment attorney to evaluate your case and determine which deadlines apply to your potential claims.