Race Discrimination Lawyer for Washtenaw County
Your appointment was not renewed the semester after you reported a professor’s remarks. Or the “professionalism” referral arrived a month after you told your unit manager that a colleague’s comments were about your race.
Can a Washtenaw County employer, including the largest one, do that? The one-sentence test: if the decision followed your complaint, or a colleague outside your race got the renewal or the program you did not, and you can document it, you may have a case. The evaluation is a free 15-minute call, and termination cases are handled on contingency. The first deadline is the EEOC’s 300 days for Title VII; Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Act allows three years and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 four, with a University of Michigan wrinkle explained below. The statewide race discrimination and retaliation page covers the statutes. This page covers Washtenaw County.
How race discrimination cases look in Washtenaw County
Washtenaw County’s workforce is dominated by one public university, two health systems, and a layer of engineering and corporate employers. The race case here tends to be well documented and to involve an internal process that looks like due process and is not.
The term appointment that quietly ends at U-M
The University of Michigan runs on term appointments: research staff, lecturers, postdocs, and administrative staff on renewable contracts. Non-renewal is not called a firing, and the university will say no decision was made against you at all. When it follows a complaint to the department or the university’s civil-rights office, or when colleagues outside your race on the same grant were renewed, the label does not matter. The evidence is the appointment letters, the funding status of the project, who else was renewed, and the dated complaint.
The “professionalism” referral at Michigan Medicine or Trinity Health Ann Arbor
Michigan Medicine and Trinity Health Ann Arbor both use professionalism and peer-review processes for clinical staff. The pattern is a nurse, tech, or therapist who reports a colleague’s race-based remarks and is then written up for tone or “escalation,” with the report never mentioned. A process that starts the month after a complaint and never happened in the prior eight years is the case. The evidence is your prior evaluations, the complaint with its date, and the referral itself. If it ended in termination, read fired after an HR complaint.
The engineer kept off the program at Toyota R&D or Forvia
Toyota Motor North America R&D in York Township, Forvia in Saline, and Domino’s corporate staff in Ann Arbor Township promote from the programs that get visibility. The pattern is an engineer or analyst always assigned the support work and never the launch program, then told at review time they lack “leadership exposure.” Steering people away from the assignments that lead to promotion is discrimination before any promotion is denied. The evidence is the program rosters over time, the assignment emails, and who was placed on the visible work instead.
Probation that never ends at a public employer
Washtenaw County government, Ann Arbor Public Schools, Eastern Michigan University, and the city of Ann Arbor hire on probationary terms and extend them. The version I see is an employee whose probation is extended after an internal complaint, then not retained “during probation” as if the complaint never happened. Public employers add a Section 1983 equal-protection claim, with uncapped damages and individual liability, to the usual statutes. The evidence is the original probation term, the extension memo, the complaint, and the retention decisions for others hired in the same cohort.
The law that applies
Three statutes apply, and in Washtenaw County the identity of the employer decides which ones are worth pleading.
Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, requires an EEOC charge within 300 days through the Detroit Field Office, and caps compensatory and punitive damages at $50K–$300K by employer size. Because Congress passed it under the Fourteenth Amendment, it reaches state employers including the university, which matters more here than anywhere else in Michigan.
42 U.S.C. § 1981 covers race and ethnicity in the making and enforcement of contracts, including at-will jobs and term appointments. No employer-size floor, no EEOC charge, no damages cap, four years to sue, but-for causation. Against a private employer it is often the strongest claim. Against the University of Michigan itself, a damages claim under § 1981 runs into sovereign immunity, covered in the next section.
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2101, covers every employer in the state, including the university, the county, and the school district, with no agency filing, a three-year deadline, and no cap on emotional-distress damages. MCL 37.2701 makes retaliation a separate violation, and under Elezovic v. Ford Motor Co., 472 Mich 408 (2005), the individual who did it can be named.
The Washtenaw County trap is the internal process. University and hospital complaint offices take months, and people assume the statutory clock waits for the finding. It does not; the 300 days run from the adverse act. Every clock is on the Michigan employment claim deadlines page.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA (Michigan) | Any employer, public or private, with 1+ employees; individuals in some cases | 3 years, direct to state court | Back pay, front pay, uncapped emotional distress, attorney fees |
| Title VII | 15+ employees, including state universities and public bodies | EEOC charge within 300 days, then suit | Back pay; compensatory and punitive capped at $50K–$300K |
| 42 U.S.C. § 1981 | Private employers of any size; individuals; not money damages against the state itself | 4 years, no agency step | Back pay, uncapped compensatory and punitive, attorney fees |
Where your Washtenaw County race 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, before a county jury. Add a federal count and the employer may remove the case to the Eastern District of Michigan, which sits mainly at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, 231 W. Lafayette Boulevard, Detroit. The court also has a courthouse at 200 E. Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, but assignment is not by county, so do not assume a federal case stays in town.
For a race case the calculation is about the employer. Against a private employer, § 1981’s uncapped punitive damages can justify federal court. Against the university, the main damages route is usually ELCRA in state court, with Title VII added if the caps are acceptable. The Washtenaw County employment lawyer page covers the jury pool and venue; the Ann Arbor employment lawyer page covers the city’s employers. Ypsilanti, Saline, Chelsea, and Dexter all file in the same two buildings.
Suing the University of Michigan for race discrimination: what the Eleventh Amendment blocks and what it does not
The University of Michigan is an arm of the State of Michigan, and the Eleventh Amendment bars most federal money-damages claims against a state. For U-M and Michigan Medicine employees, that sorts the race statutes three ways.
Title VII works. Congress abrogated state immunity for Title VII, so a U-M employee can file an EEOC charge and sue the university in federal court for race discrimination and retaliation, subject to the damages caps.
Section 1981 and Section 1983 do not work for money against the university itself. The Supreme Court held, in a case from Michigan, that a state and its agencies are not “persons” who can be sued for damages under § 1983, and § 1981 claims against state actors run through § 1983. What survives: injunctive relief such as reinstatement against university officials, and damages claims against the individual decision-makers personally.
ELCRA works, and it is usually the main event. Michigan’s statute covers the state as an employer, allows three years, and does not cap emotional-distress damages. Claims against the state carry procedural requirements, including notice and Court of Claims rules, that must be handled early, so build the U-M case with a lawyer from the start rather than after an internal finding. VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System employees are federal workers with a different process entirely: EEO counselor contact within 45 days.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Forward yourself the record tonight. Appointment letters, funding notices, evaluations, the complaint you filed and every response, the referral or non-renewal notice, and the emails around each, to a personal account before your institutional access ends.
- Take only your own record. Patient data, research data, and grant files belong to the institution; copying them creates a problem that competes with your case.
- Write the timeline with dates. The remark, the report, who received it, the first change in treatment, the non-renewal or termination, and the colleagues renewed instead.
- Request your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act applies to public and private employers alike, and the file often shows when the referral was opened.
- Do not sign a separation or settlement agreement from the institution yet. It will release ELCRA and Title VII claims together, and the review window allows time for advice.
- Do not resign to end the process. A resignation is a harder constructive-discharge case, and it can forfeit appeal rights the institution’s own rules give you.
Washtenaw County race discrimination questions
Does the Eleventh Amendment stop me from suing the University of Michigan for race discrimination?
Only partly. Title VII claims against the university are allowed because Congress abrogated state immunity for that statute, so you can file an EEOC charge and sue. Money-damages claims under Section 1981 and Section 1983 against the university itself are barred, though claims against individual officials and requests for reinstatement survive. Michigan’s ELCRA applies to the university in state court with no cap on emotional-distress damages.
A patient’s family at an Ann Arbor hospital demanded a different nurse because of my race and the hospital went along with it. Is that discrimination?
Yes. Honoring a patient’s or customer’s racial preference in making assignments is race discrimination under Title VII and ELCRA, and customer preference is not a defense. One reassignment may be a small harm, but a pattern of accommodating such requests, or discipline for objecting, builds a case. Write down the date, the charge nurse who reassigned you, who was assigned instead, and whether an incident report was filed.
I am on a work visa at a Washtenaw County engineering employer. Can I still bring a race or national-origin discrimination claim?
Yes. Title VII and Michigan’s ELCRA protect employees regardless of immigration status, and Section 1981 covers race and ancestry for anyone within the United States. Being on a visa does not reduce your rights, though it can affect which remedies are practical. Discrimination based on citizenship status itself falls under a separate federal statute, so tell me the exact remarks and decisions so the claims can be sorted.
My research appointment at U-M was not renewed after I reported a professor’s racist comments to the department. Is non-renewal retaliation?
It can be. A non-renewal is an adverse action when it follows protected activity, whatever the institution calls it. Reporting race-based remarks to a department chair, HR, or the university’s civil-rights office is protected under Title VII and ELCRA. The questions are timing, whether the grant still had funding, and whether others on the project were renewed. Keep the appointment letters, the funding notices, and the dated report.
I work for Washtenaw County government or Ann Arbor Public Schools. Do I have race claims beyond Title VII and ELCRA?
Usually, yes. A county, city, or school district is a “person” under Section 1983, so an equal-protection claim for race discrimination or retaliation can be added, with uncapped compensatory damages and punitive damages against individual officials. It requires showing the decision reflected a policy, custom, or the act of a final decision-maker, or naming the individuals responsible. The limitations period in Michigan is three years.
Talk to a race discrimination lawyer who takes Washtenaw County cases
If you were not renewed, passed over, or fired because of your race at the university, a hospital, an engineering center, or a public agency in Washtenaw County, or punished for reporting it, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. I will tell you which statutes reach your employer and which deadline comes first.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. Fifteen years in practice, more than 50 cases tried to verdict, employee-side only. Working in another county? See the race discrimination pages for Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County.