Chicago Employment Case Self-Check
This self-check can help you identify facts that may justify speaking with an employee-side employment lawyer. It is not a score, legal advice, or a prediction of success. Employment claims depend on the timeline, applicable law, employer coverage, evidence, and filing deadlines.
1. Termination, Discipline, or a Major Change
- Were you fired, demoted, suspended, denied promotion, transferred, or given a sudden negative review?
- Did the employer give a reason that conflicts with your records or changed over time?
- Were workplace rules applied differently to comparable employees?
2. Discrimination or Harassment
- Was the action connected to race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, religion, age, disability, or another protected characteristic?
- Did a supervisor or coworker make biased, sexual, or threatening comments?
- Did the employer know about serious harassment but fail to respond appropriately?
Learn more about workplace discrimination and sexual harassment.
3. Retaliation
- Did treatment worsen after you reported discrimination, harassment, unpaid wages, safety issues, fraud, or another suspected violation?
- Were you punished after supporting a coworker’s complaint or participating in an investigation?
- Did the adverse action occur soon after the employer learned about your report?
Timing can be relevant, but documents and decision-maker knowledge often matter. See our retaliation page.
4. Leave or Accommodation
- Were you discouraged from taking medical or family leave?
- Were protected absences counted under an attendance policy?
- Did the employer refuse to discuss a disability or pregnancy accommodation, or fire you near the end of leave?
5. Pay Problems
- Were overtime hours paid at the wrong rate or not paid at all?
- Did you work before clock-in, after clock-out, through unpaid breaks, or remotely without pay?
- Were you labeled exempt or an independent contractor even though your actual duties and working relationship suggest otherwise?
- Are earned commissions, bonuses, wages, or final compensation missing?
6. Severance Offer
- Does the agreement release legal claims?
- Does it include confidentiality, non-disparagement, repayment, cooperation, or restrictive-covenant terms?
- Is there a short deadline to sign or a special age-discrimination waiver?
A review before signing can identify what you would give up and whether negotiation may be appropriate.
Facts That Can Strengthen a Review
A clear timeline, written complaints, emails or texts, consistent performance history, witnesses, comparator information, pay and time records, medical or leave documents, and shifting employer explanations can all be important. A “yes” answer does not prove a claim, and a “no” answer does not rule one out.
What to Preserve
Keep termination papers, severance offers, policies, reviews, schedules, pay stubs, time records, relevant messages, and a dated chronology. Preserve evidence lawfully and do not take confidential company information you are not entitled to keep.
Act Promptly
Some claims require an administrative charge before a lawsuit, and different legal theories have different deadlines. If several of these questions match your experience—or one event was especially serious—request a confidential case review or call (312) 870-0043.
Attorney advertising. This self-check is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.