Wrongfully fired in Macomb County? You need a trial-tested employment lawyer who knows the 16th Circuit in Mount Clemens.
You were fired, and you want three answers. Do I have a case? What does it cost to find out? How fast do I have to move?
The honest part first. Michigan is an at-will state. Most firings in Macomb County are legal, even the unfair ones. What makes a firing unlawful is a protected reason behind it — FMLA leave, an accommodation request, a pregnancy, a harassment complaint — plus evidence. That’s what I look for in the first call.
The cost to find out is nothing. The case evaluation is free and takes fifteen minutes. Termination cases are handled on contingency.
Speed matters. A Michigan Whistleblowers’ Protection Act claim dies after 90 days. An EEOC charge must be filed within 300 days. Some of your evidence lives in a work email account you may lose tonight.
I’m Warren Astbury. Harvard Law 2009, 50+ cases tried to verdict, fifteen years employee-side only. I do not represent employers.
Why Macomb County employment cases are their own thing
Macomb County has roughly 875,000 people and a workforce that still builds things. That shapes the cases.
The GM Global Technical Center in Warren is the county’s flagship employer — engineers, designers, and salaried staff working alongside skilled trades. Stellantis runs Warren Truck Assembly and the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. Ford runs Sterling Axle. Below the assembly plants sits a deep supplier base along the Van Dyke and Gratiot industrial corridors, from Shelby Township’s industrial parks near the old Packard Proving Grounds down to Roseville and Eastpointe.
Then there is defense. The Detroit Arsenal in Warren houses the U.S. Army’s TACOM, and General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights builds the vehicles that come out of that pipeline. Defense work brings its own set of rules — federal-employee procedures at the Arsenal, security clearances at the contractors — that most employment lawyers see once a decade.
Healthcare is the other big pool: Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township, McLaren Macomb in Mount Clemens, and Ascension Macomb-Oakland in Warren. Add Macomb Community College, the county government in Mount Clemens, and districts like Utica Community Schools and Chippewa Valley, and you have a large public workforce with Whistleblowers’ Protection Act exposure.
Two features run through nearly all of it. The work is physical — line work, trades, nursing, and warehouse jobs produce injuries, and injuries produce FMLA leave and accommodation requests. Those requests are where retaliation happens. And the workforce is heavily unionized, which means many Macomb County workers have a grievance procedure and are told, wrongly, that it is their only option.
Where Macomb County employment cases get filed
State-law claims from Macomb County — Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, Whistleblowers’ Protection Act — are filed in the Macomb County Circuit Court, the 16th Judicial Circuit, at 40 N. Main Street in Mount Clemens. Your jury is drawn from Macomb County residents: people from Warren, Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, and the rest of the county, many of whom work in or grew up around the plants, the hospitals, and the trades. They tend to know what a shop-floor write-up looks like and what it means when the “performance problems” start the week after an FMLA request.
Federal claims — Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA — go to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, 231 W. Lafayette Blvd, Detroit. Federal court draws its jury from a wider region, moves faster to summary judgment, and caps compensatory damages on Title VII and ADA claims by employer size.
The choice between them is a real strategic decision. ELCRA has a three-year limitations period and no cap on emotional-distress damages. Title VII requires an EEOC charge within 300 days. Many Macomb County cases can be filed in either court, and which one depends on your facts, your deadlines, and where the employer is weakest. If the employer removes a state case to federal court, that is common and not a sign of trouble — but it is a reason to have a lawyer who has tried cases in both buildings.
Cities we serve in Macomb County
| City | Notes / major employers | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Warren | GM Global Technical Center, Detroit Arsenal / TACOM, Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly, Macomb Community College, Ascension Macomb-Oakland, City of Warren | Warren employment lawyer |
| Sterling Heights | Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly, General Dynamics Land Systems, Ford Sterling Axle, Key Safety/Joyson, Henry Ford Macomb, City of Sterling Heights | Sterling Heights employment lawyer |
| Clinton Township | Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, Chippewa Valley Schools, Macomb County offices, Gratiot Avenue retail and services | Clinton Township employment lawyer |
| Shelby Township | Automotive supplier base, Utica Community Schools, industrial parks near the Packard Proving Grounds | Shelby Township employment lawyer |
| Macomb Township | Fast-growing residential base, Chippewa Valley and L’Anse Creuse schools, distribution and trades | Macomb Township employment lawyer |
| Roseville | Macomb Mall retail corridor, automotive suppliers, Roseville Community Schools, Gratiot logistics | — |
| Mount Clemens | Macomb County government, the 16th Circuit courthouse, McLaren Macomb, Mount Clemens Community Schools | — |
| St. Clair Shores | Ascension St. John area medical employment, lakefront service economy, Lake Shore Public Schools | — |
| Eastpointe | Gratiot corridor retail and services, automotive suppliers, Eastpointe Community Schools | — |
| Fraser | Small-manufacturing and supplier base along Groesbeck, Fraser Public Schools | — |
| Utica | Utica Community Schools, Van Dyke and M-59 commercial corridor | — |
| Chesterfield Township | Distribution and light industrial along I-94, 23 Mile Road retail corridor | — |
| Harrison Township | Selfridge Air National Guard Base, lakefront marine and service economy | — |
| Washington Township | Residential and trades, Romeo Community Schools | — |
| New Baltimore | Anchor Bay service economy, Anchor Bay Schools | — |
| Center Line | Small manufacturing along Van Dyke, Center Line Public Schools | — |
| Richmond | Northern Macomb small manufacturing and agriculture, Richmond Community Schools | — |
| Romeo | Village center for northern Macomb trades and agriculture, Romeo Community Schools | — |
If your city isn’t listed, I still take the case. These are the places Macomb County workers call from most often.
What we handle for Macomb County workers
I organize this by what happened to you, not by statute. The statute comes later.
Fired or demoted after announcing a pregnancy. A line worker who asks for a lifting restriction, a nurse who needs a schedule change, an engineer whose “role was eliminated” two months after the announcement. ELCRA, the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the 2023 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act all apply. See pregnancy discrimination in Michigan and demoted after pregnancy.
Fired during or after FMLA leave. The most common Macomb County case I see. Plant and hospital work produces injuries and surgeries, and intermittent FMLA leave under a points-based attendance system is where employers most often get it wrong. See FMLA retaliation in Michigan, fired after asking for FMLA leave, and what evidence proves FMLA retaliation.
Denied an accommodation, or punished for asking. A “100% healed” return-to-work policy, a refusal to consider light duty, a termination while you’re still on restrictions. The ADA and Michigan’s PWDCRA both require an interactive process, and many Macomb County employers skip it. See ADA accommodation and retaliation and accommodation denied, now fired.
Harassed, reported it, then pushed out. Shop floors and hospital units are still places where sexual harassment happens and where the complaint, not the harassment, gets punished. See sexual harassment in Michigan, reporting sexual harassment in Michigan, and fired after an HR complaint.
Treated differently because of race, sex, or age. Passed over for the apprenticeship, written up for what others do without consequence, or caught in a “restructuring” that only hit workers over 50. See race discrimination and retaliation, gender discrimination and retaliation, age discrimination in Michigan, and RIF or age discrimination?.
Hit with a non-compete after you left. Supplier engineers and sales staff in Macomb County get these often, and most are narrower than the letter claims. See non-compete defense in Michigan.
Reported wrongdoing and got fired. One honest note. Michigan’s Whistleblowers’ Protection Act protects reports to a government agency or public body, and the deadline is 90 days. A complaint to HR alone is usually not a WPA claim — though if it was about discrimination or harassment, it may be protected under ELCRA or Title VII instead. See whistleblower retaliation in Michigan.
All of these fall under the umbrella of wrongful termination in Michigan, and every one has a clock. The Michigan employment claim deadlines page lays them out.
Union grievance or lawsuit? Macomb County workers often need both
If you’re UAW, an operating engineer, a nurse in a bargaining unit, or a county employee under a collective bargaining agreement, you have a grievance procedure. Use it. But understand what it is and what it is not.
The grievance enforces the contract. Your statutory rights — under ELCRA, the ADA, the FMLA, Title VII — exist independently of it. Losing a grievance does not bar a discrimination lawsuit. Winning one does not fully compensate you. And filing a grievance does not stop the clock on your EEOC charge or your WPA claim. Workers wait out a long grievance process and learn the 300-day EEOC window closed while they waited.
There is a trap in the other direction. If your claim is really about how the contract was interpreted — seniority, bumping rights, a disputed discipline schedule — federal labor law may push it out of court and into the grievance system. Sorting contract claims from statutory claims is the first thing I do with a union member’s file.
File the grievance, keep everything the union sends you, and call a lawyer at the same time. Not after.
FMLA and disability leave in physically demanding jobs
The pattern in Macomb County plants, hospitals, and warehouses is consistent enough to describe.
A worker gets hurt or diagnosed. They qualify for FMLA — the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles, they’ve worked twelve months and 1,250 hours. They take leave, or intermittent leave for flare-ups and appointments. Then the attendance points accumulate anyway, or the “job abandonment” letter arrives while they’re still under a doctor’s care, or they return to find their job “restructured” into a lower classification.
The ADA and PWDCRA add a second layer. When leave ends and the worker still has restrictions, the employer has to engage in an interactive process about accommodation — light duty, a modified schedule, reassignment to a vacant position. A blanket “no restrictions, no return” policy is not that process. Neither is a form letter.
These cases are won on documents: the FMLA certification, the attendance records, the return-to-work note, the emails to the supervisor. If you’re on leave now and sense something is wrong, forward yourself every relevant message today.
Defense contractor and Detroit Arsenal employees
Two groups of Macomb County workers face different procedures, and the differences trip people up.
If you’re a federal civilian employee at the Detroit Arsenal or TACOM, you do not file with the EEOC on the 300-day schedule. You must contact your agency’s EEO counselor within 45 days of the discriminatory act. Miss it and the claim is likely gone. Federal whistleblower claims run through the Office of Special Counsel and the Merit Systems Protection Board, not Michigan’s WPA.
If you work for a contractor like General Dynamics Land Systems or a supplier in the defense chain, you’re a private employee, and ELCRA, Title VII, the ADA, and the FMLA apply normally. The wrinkle is the security clearance. Courts generally will not second-guess the government’s clearance decision itself, so the case has to be built around what the employer did — timing, comparators, shifting explanations — rather than around whether a clearance should have been granted or pulled. That framing has to be settled before anything is filed.
What to do in the first 72 hours after you’re fired in Macomb County
- Preserve your documents tonight. Forward yourself the emails, texts, calendar invites, performance reviews, FMLA paperwork, and HR communications that touch your situation, before your badge and login stop working. Do not take confidential company data — take your own record.
- Write the timeline. Hire date. When the protected thing happened — the leave request, the complaint, the accommodation request, the pregnancy announcement. When the treatment changed. Who said what. Who saw it. Dates, not impressions.
- Request your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act gives you the right to see it. Send the request by email now, so there’s a record.
- Don’t sign the severance yet. The release inside it is worth more to the employer than the check is to you. Read Michigan severance agreements explained and have a lawyer look at it first.
- File for unemployment. Being fired does not disqualify you, and the reason the employer gives in the unemployment file often becomes evidence later.
- If you’re in a union, file the grievance. Then call a lawyer anyway.
Macomb County employment law questions
Is Michigan an at-will state? Can I still sue if I was fired?
Yes, Michigan is at-will, and most firings are legal. You can still sue if the real reason was unlawful — retaliation for FMLA leave, an accommodation request, a harassment complaint, or a report to a government agency, or discrimination based on race, sex, pregnancy, age, or disability. The at-will rule ends where those protections begin. The question is whether you have evidence of the real reason.
How long do I have to file a wrongful termination claim in Michigan?
It depends on the claim. A Whistleblowers’ Protection Act claim must be filed within 90 days. An EEOC charge under Title VII, the ADA, or the ADEA must be filed within 300 days. FMLA claims have two years, three if the violation was willful. ELCRA and PWDCRA claims have three years. Federal employees at the Detroit Arsenal have 45 days to contact an EEO counselor.
What does it cost to hire an employment lawyer in Macomb County?
The first conversation costs nothing. I offer a free 15-minute case evaluation by phone. If I take a termination case, it’s on a contingency fee — no fee unless there’s a recovery, and the fee comes out of the recovery. Non-compete defense and severance review are handled differently, and I explain the arrangement before you commit to anything.
Where would my Macomb County employment case be filed?
State-law claims under ELCRA, PWDCRA, or the WPA are filed in Macomb County Circuit Court, the 16th Circuit, at 40 N. Main Street in Mount Clemens. Federal claims under Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, or the FMLA go to the Eastern District of Michigan at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in Detroit. Many cases can go either way, and the choice is strategic.
I’m in the UAW. Does the grievance process replace a lawsuit?
No. The grievance enforces your contract; a lawsuit enforces your statutory rights under laws like ELCRA, the ADA, and the FMLA. Losing a grievance does not bar the lawsuit, and filing one does not pause the 300-day EEOC deadline or the 90-day WPA deadline. File the grievance and talk to a lawyer at the same time, not afterward.
My employer says I was fired for attendance or performance. Does that end it?
No. Employers almost always state a legitimate reason. The question is whether it’s the real one. Timing matters — discipline that starts right after an FMLA request or a harassment complaint. So do comparators, meaning coworkers who did the same thing and kept their jobs, and shifting explanations. Attendance points assessed for FMLA-protected absences are a common example of a stated reason that doesn’t hold up.
Macomb County pages for the cases I take most
Each page covers the employers, the courthouse, and the deadlines for that claim in Macomb County.
Pregnancy discrimination in Macomb County
Fired, demoted, denied light duty, or “reorganized” out after announcing a pregnancy.
FMLA retaliation in Macomb County
Discipline, a lost position, or a firing that follows protected medical leave.
Disability discrimination (ADA & PWDCRA) in Macomb County
A denied accommodation, a “no restrictions” policy, or a firing after you asked for help.
Sexual harassment in Macomb County
Harassment at work, and what happens after you report it.
Talk to a Macomb County employment lawyer
If you were fired in Warren, Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, or anywhere else in Macomb County, and something about the timing doesn’t sit right, call (313) 701-2448 for a free 15-minute case evaluation. Bring your timeline and whatever documents you’ve saved. I’ll tell you plainly whether I see a case.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. More than 50 cases tried to verdict. Fifteen years on the employee side, never the employer’s. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. Learn more about the firm, read case results, or contact us online.
Astbury Law also serves workers across the region through the Wayne County employment lawyer, Oakland County employment lawyer, and Washtenaw County employment lawyer pages.