How an Experienced Whistleblower Attorney can Help in a Whistle Blowing Case

A whistleblower attorney explains that most businesses are run in an ethical and trusting way and wouldn't dream of putting employees in the position of having to make an decision based upon what they believe is right. However there are some unscrupulous employers who will take total advantage of their employees and expect them to do something, or continue to work in a way which simply isn't proper. Faced with this situation, some employees would tend to just run with it. This may not be because they are happy about what may be going on, but because they fear for their job, or worse still losing it. On the other hand, some employees may feel that their conscience prevents them from continuing with their job and in this instance they would 'whistle blow' on the company.

So what defines a whistle blower?

In essence a whistle blower is an individual or in some cases a group of people who report the wrongdoings and bad ethics of a company to a higher authority. It has to be said that it is no good reporting the act to another body. Instead to be a whistleblower and receive protected status then the unethical practice has to be reported to either a law enforcement agency or a government body. As a protected class, this means that an employer cannot exact retaliation and therefore is not allowed to suspend, demote, terminate or victimize any employee because of their whistle blowing activities. If this happens, then under the law an employee can employ the services of a whistle blowing lawyer who can seek damages against the perpetrator.

In many cases, the employer doesn't necessarily have to have violated any laws, on the contrary if a whistle blower is 'spilling the beans' on something that may be unethical but not illegal and gets discriminated against because of their actions, then they are still entitled to whistleblower's protection status.

In some instances the employer could well use the excuse that the individual simply wasn't performing in their job role or that they have been victim to staff cuts. An investigation team of whistle blowing attorneys will have to exercise some sort of caution here because this may well have been the case and probably had nothing to do with the fact that the individual concerned was actually a whistleblower. Some cases are clearer than others. For example if the whistle blew on a company and less than a month later the employee had been terminated, then there is a fairly good chance that the reason for the termination was retaliation for the whistle blowing act. If on the other hand six months down the line the same employee suddenly found themselves out of a job, then this can be much harder to prove.

So with this in mind, how does a whistleblower attorney prove discrimination when it isn't as straight forward?

To put it quite simply, this is where the 'implied contract' comes in to play. An implied contract is a contract that is anything other than a written one and is normally 'implied' rights, rules and regulations that the employee and the company must follow in order to keep everything above board. This is generally taken as read when an employee has been with a company for a certain period of time (usually, but not always 6 months or more). These rights, rules and regulations are normally written down in the company handbook. This is something that could be a valuable asset to a whistleblower who feels that they have been wrongfully terminated

In any company handbook, there will be rules stipulating the disciplinary procedures of an individual and they usually follow the 'three strikes and you're out' rule. This means that if an individual does something wrong, then they should get a verbal warning. Do it again and it becomes a written warning. Finally do it a third time and the employer is normally quite within their rights to terminate the perpetrator's employment. When these procedures are not followed in a termination process then it may well become clear that the employer is trying to get rid of the whistleblower for other means. A skilled whistleblower lawyer will advise that in this situation an employee who feels that they have been wrongfully terminated can use the company handbook and it's guidelines as evidence.

Just because a company has been acting either illegally or unethically, it doesn't mean to say that an employee should suffer in silence. Instead a whistleblower attorney can be on hand to explain their rights and what can be done about it.