You were fired. Was it legal?

Michigan is an at-will state, which is where most people stop reading — and why a good number of real claims never get made. Here is the part that matters.

The exception

Your employer can fire you for a bad reason, an unfair reason, or no reason at all. What it cannot do is fire you because of a protected characteristic — age, race, sex, religion, disability, pregnancy — or because you exercised a protected right: requesting FMLA leave, asking for a disability accommodation, reporting discrimination or harassment, or refusing to take part in it.

Michigan law is in some respects broader than federal law here. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act both give Michigan employees protections and timelines that differ from their federal counterparts, and the deadlines are not the same, which is a reason not to wait and see.

What I look at first: timing

Before anything else I want two dates — the date you did the protected thing, and the date they let you go. When those sit close together, that proximity is evidence. When months separate them, it gets considerably harder to connect them.

A few patterns come up again and again:

• A performance improvement plan that appears within a few weeks of a leave request, against a clean review history.
• A stated reason that changes between the meeting and the paperwork.
• A position that is “eliminated” and then reposted.
• A decision-maker who was told about a complaint days before deciding.
• A last-minute documented warning that nobody mentioned at the time.

None of these wins a case by itself. Together, and against a record that was fine until you spoke up, they require an employer to explain a gap it often cannot explain.

What to gather

Your own copies of your performance reviews, your termination letter, any severance offer, and your own emails. A written timeline with dates while you still remember them. The names of anyone who saw what happened.

Your own documents only. Do not take confidential material from your employer on your way out. It does not help your case and it can badly damage it.

How I evaluate a case

I am a solo by choice and I take a small number of matters, which means I look at each one closely and turn down more than I accept. If I do not think you have a case, I will tell you on the first call. That is a better outcome than a year of work and a bad answer.

Common questions

I was an at-will employee. Do I have any claim at all?

Possibly. At-will means your employer did not need a good reason. It does not mean your employer was allowed to act on an illegal one. The question is not whether the firing was fair, but whether it was because of a protected characteristic or a protected act.

How soon after a complaint does a firing have to happen to count?

There is no fixed rule. Courts look at closeness in time as one piece of evidence among several. A termination within a couple of months of a protected act draws attention; a longer gap usually needs other evidence to bridge it.

My employer says I was let go for performance. Does that end it?

No. An employer is entitled to give a reason; the question is whether the reason is the real one. Where the performance record does not support the explanation, or the explanation has shifted over time, that is exactly what pretext looks like.

How long do I have to bring a claim?

It depends on the claim, and the deadlines differ — some Michigan claims allow considerably more time than the federal ones, and certain federal claims require an administrative charge long before any lawsuit. The safe assumption is that a deadline is already running. Call and find out which one applies to you.

What does it cost?

Wrongful termination matters are handled on a contingency: no attorney fee unless we recover. The client may be responsible for case costs, which we discuss before you sign anything.