Age Discrimination Lawyer for Washtenaw County
You are 54 and the oldest person in your Ann Arbor office by a decade. The new director talks about “energy” and “digital natives,” your rating slipped for the first time in fifteen years, and the reorganization memo listed your position among the ones being “sunset.”
Here is the one-sentence test: if the people kept are much younger, the reason given does not match your record, and the manager’s own words point at age, you may have a case. Finding out costs nothing: a free 15-minute call, and termination cases are handled on contingency. The deadline that closes first is the EEOC’s 300-day window for the federal claim; Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Act gives you three years, and for University of Michigan employees it is the claim that matters most. I’m Warren Astbury, and I take age discrimination cases from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Saline, and the rest of Washtenaw County, for employees only.
How age discrimination cases look in Washtenaw County
Washtenaw County’s workforce is the most educated in the state and is dominated by one employer. Age cases here come from three settings, each with its own vocabulary.
“Culture fit” in downtown tech
The software companies and startups around downtown Ann Arbor, including the local offices of larger tech firms, hire young and talk about “fit,” “hustle,” and “digital natives.” A 49-year-old engineering manager is told the team needs “a different energy,” is replaced by someone in their late twenties, and is let go in a “restructuring” that touches no one under 40. The evidence is the Slack messages that used those words, the age of the replacement, the posting for your old role, and the ages of everyone cut and everyone kept.
The retirement question at the engineering centers
Toyota Motor North America R&D in York Township, Forvia in Saline, Domino’s corporate in Ann Arbor Township, and Ford’s Rawsonville plant in Ypsilanti Township employ long-tenured engineers and salaried staff. The pattern is a manager who asks about your “retirement timeline” in a one-on-one, follows it with a performance improvement plan, and then names you in the next headcount reduction on “future skills.” The evidence is your notes from that conversation, the plan’s goals compared with what younger peers were held to, and the ages of who was selected and who was retained.
“Succession planning” at the hospitals and the university
Michigan Medicine, Trinity Health Ann Arbor, and the University of Michigan’s administrative units employ tens of thousands of staff, many over 50 with decades of strong reviews. The pattern here is quieter. A department begins “succession planning,” a younger colleague is given your key responsibilities “for development,” and a year later your position is eliminated as redundant. The evidence is the org chart before and after, the email that assigned your duties away, and the age and tenure of the person who now holds them. For U-M employees, which statute you sue under is its own question, covered below.
The law that applies
Two statutes can reach a Washtenaw County age case, and for a large share of this county’s workers only one of them actually does.
The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers 40 and older at employers with 20 or more employees. It requires an EEOC charge within 300 days at the Detroit Field Office before suit. Under Gross v. FBL, you must prove age was the but-for cause of the decision. A willful violation doubles lost wages as liquidated damages; the ADEA pays nothing for emotional distress and no punitive damages. And because of the Eleventh Amendment, it cannot be used to recover money from the University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University at all.
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2202, covers employers with one or more employees, including the state universities. It protects every age, not only those over 40, so the 35-year-old passed over at a startup as “too junior to lead” is covered too. It allows three years to file directly in circuit court with no agency step, puts no cap on emotional-distress damages, and under Elezovic v. Ford Motor Co., 472 Mich 408 (2005), lets you name the supervisor who made the decision.
The deadline trap is assuming the three-year state clock covers everything. It covers the state claim only; the federal liquidated-damages claim dies at day 300. All of the deadlines are on the Michigan employment claim deadlines page.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA age (Michigan) | Employers with one or more employees, including U-M, EMU, the county, and the schools; workers of any age | Three years, filed directly in the Washtenaw County Trial Court | Back pay, front pay, uncapped emotional distress, attorney fees; supervisor can be personally liable |
| ADEA (federal, private and local-government employers) | Workers 40 and older at employers with 20 or more employees | EEOC charge within 300 days, then suit | Back pay and front pay; doubled as liquidated damages when willful; no emotional-distress or punitive damages |
| ADEA against a state university (U-M, EMU) | Workers 40 and older | Same 300-day charge | No money damages against the university; only injunctive relief against officials, which is why ELCRA is the route |
Where your Washtenaw County age discrimination case gets filed
An ELCRA-only case files in the Washtenaw County Trial Court, the 22nd Circuit, at 101 E. Huron Street in downtown Ann Arbor. Add an ADEA count against a private employer and the case can be removed to the Eastern District of Michigan, whose main courthouse is the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse at 231 W. Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit; the court also sits at 200 E. Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, but assignment is not by county.
For age cases the state courthouse carries most of the value: uncapped emotional-distress damages, coverage at every age and employer size, personal liability for the decision-maker, and, for university employees, the only path to money at all. The ADEA adds liquidated damages for a willful violation by a private employer. A Washtenaw jury reads exhibits and follows a timeline, which is what an age case built on ratings and org charts asks of it. The Washtenaw County employment lawyer page covers the jury pool and venue in more detail.
A software manager from downtown Ann Arbor, a validation engineer from York Township, and a department administrator from Michigan Medicine all file in the same building on Huron Street.
University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine employees: why your age case is a state case
The University of Michigan is an arm of the State of Michigan, and in Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents (2000) the U.S. Supreme Court held that states cannot be sued for money damages under the ADEA. That holding reaches U-M, Michigan Medicine, and Eastern Michigan University. A federal age suit against the university can, at most, seek an order against an official to stop the practice. It cannot recover your lost pay.
Michigan’s ELCRA has no such barrier. The university is an employer under the statute, the Washtenaw County Trial Court has jurisdiction, and the remedies are complete: back pay, front pay, uncapped emotional-distress damages, and attorney fees. The department chair who made the decision can also be named individually under Elezovic. For a U-M employee, the ELCRA claim is not the backup; it is the case.
Two more points. Washtenaw County government, Ann Arbor Public Schools, and the City of Ann Arbor are local governments, not the state, so the ADEA applies to them normally. VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System employees are federal workers: ELCRA does not apply, and the ADEA runs through the federal-sector process, an EEO counselor within 45 days or a written notice of intent to sue filed with the EEOC within 180 days.
University reorganizations also produce group releases with 45-day consideration periods and age-and-title disclosures. Read RIF or age discrimination? and Michigan severance agreements explained before the period runs.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Forward yourself the record tonight. Several years of reviews, the reorganization or “sunset” memo, the message that reassigned your duties, and anything mentioning retirement, energy, or fit, to a personal account before your login is cut.
- Do not sign the separation agreement yet. The 21- or 45-day consideration period exists to be used, and the release inside it is what the employer is paying for.
- Keep the age-and-title list. If your packet included the disclosure of who was selected and who was retained, it is the clearest evidence of the pattern you will get before discovery.
- Request your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act requires employers, including the university, to let you review and copy it.
- Write down the retirement conversation. The date, the words used, who asked, and whether anyone else heard it.
- Do not accept early retirement to make it stop. A retirement you agree to is far harder to unwind than a termination you contest.
Washtenaw County age discrimination questions
An Ann Arbor tech startup told me I wasn’t a “culture fit” and replaced me with someone 20 years younger. Is that age discrimination?
It may be. “Culture fit” is not unlawful on its own, but when it comes with a substantially younger replacement, other older workers cut in the same round, and messages about “energy” or “digital natives,” it reads as a proxy for age. Startups often have fewer than 20 employees, which takes the federal ADEA off the table, but Michigan’s ELCRA covers employers of any size and protects every age.
My manager at a Washtenaw County engineering center asked about my retirement timeline, then put me on a performance improvement plan at 61. What does that mean for a claim?
It means you should start documenting now. A retirement question followed closely by a performance plan is a recognized sequence in age cases, especially when your prior reviews were strong and the plan’s goals were not applied to younger engineers. Write down the conversation with the date and exact words, save every review, and keep the plan itself. If termination follows, that sequence is the core of the case.
My hospital said it was “succession planning” when it moved my duties to a younger colleague, and then my position was eliminated. Is that age discrimination?
It can be. Succession planning is lawful when it develops people; it is evidence of age discrimination when it strips an older employee’s responsibilities so the position can later be called redundant. The key facts are the email that reassigned the duties, the age and tenure of who received them, and whether the “eliminated” work is still being done. At Michigan Medicine the claim proceeds under ELCRA rather than the ADEA.
My Washtenaw County layoff release gives me 45 days to decide. Does that mean it was a group layoff, and does it matter?
Yes on both. Federal law requires 45 days, rather than 21, when an ADEA release is offered to a group, and it also requires the employer to give you the job titles and ages of everyone selected and everyone in the unit who was not. Check the packet for that list. If it is missing, the ADEA waiver may be invalid; if it is there, it may show exactly the age skew a claim is built on.
I’m 71 and my Ann Arbor employer cut my hours and said it was “easing me toward retirement.” Is that an adverse action?
It can be. The ADEA and ELCRA have no upper age limit, and a cut in hours or pay motivated by age is actionable even without a firing. “Easing toward retirement” is a direct statement of an age-based reason from the person making the decision. Save the message or note the words and date, record the hours you lost and who picked them up, and do not agree to retire before getting advice.
Talk to an age discrimination lawyer who takes Washtenaw County cases
If you were reorganized out, rated down, or pushed toward retirement at the university, a hospital, an engineering center, or a tech company in Washtenaw County and the people who stayed are younger, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. I will tell you which statute reaches your employer, whether the pattern is a case, and which deadline is closest.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. Fifteen years in practice, more than 50 cases tried to verdict, employee-side only. Working in the tri-county area instead? See the age discrimination pages for Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County.