How to File a Wrongful Termination Claim: EEOC Charge to Federal Lawsuit

To file a wrongful termination claim based on discrimination or retaliation, you start by submitting a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 days of your firing (300 days in most states), cooperate with the agency’s mediation or investigation, and then file a lawsuit in federal court within 90 days of receiving a Notice of Right to Sue. Miss any of those deadlines and the strongest evidence in the world won’t save your case. The steps below walk through what to do, in the order to do it.

Confirm Your Firing Was Legally Wrongful

Most U.S. employment is at will, which means an employer can fire you for almost any reason or no reason at all. A termination only becomes “wrongful” in the legal sense when it violates a specific statute or an enforceable agreement, and the reason it violates the law dictates where you file.

The most common basis is discrimination under federal law. Employers cannot fire you because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and transgender status), national origin, disability, age (if you’re 40 or older), or genetic information. Employer size matters: race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, and genetic information claims require at least 15 employees, while age discrimination protections require at least 20.¹

Retaliation is the other major category the EEOC handles. Federal law prohibits firing you for filing a discrimination complaint, participating in an investigation, reporting safety violations, or exercising whistleblower protections. Retaliation charges are the single largest category the EEOC receives, and they follow the same filing path as discrimination.

Not every wrongful firing runs through the EEOC. If you were fired for refusing to do something illegal, for exercising a legal right such as filing a workers’ compensation claim, or for performing a public duty like jury service, that’s usually a public policy claim under state law. If your employee handbook promised specific termination procedures the company ignored, that can support an implied contract claim. Those claims go directly to state court on their own deadlines, and the EEOC process described here doesn’t apply to them. Federal employees also follow a separate route with a much tighter 45-day deadline to contact an agency EEO counselor.²

Know the Deadlines That Can End Your Case

The EEOC imposes a hard cutoff of 180 calendar days from the date of your termination to file a charge. That extends to 300 days if your state has its own agency enforcing anti-discrimination laws, which most states do.² Weekends and holidays count toward the total, but if the last day lands on a weekend or holiday you have until the next business day.

Age discrimination has a quirk. The 300-day extension only applies if a state law (not just a local ordinance) prohibits age discrimination and a state agency enforces it.²

Equal Pay Act claims are the one exception to the EEOC-first rule. You can file directly in court within two years of the last discriminatory paycheck, or three years if the violation was willful.³

A second critical deadline arrives later. Once the EEOC issues a Notice of Right to Sue, you have exactly 90 days to file a lawsuit.⁴ Courts enforce that 90-day window strictly.

Gather Evidence Before You Lose Access

Start collecting records the moment you suspect something is wrong, not after the firing. Company email, internal systems, and shared drives usually go dark the day your employment ends.

Your employment contract and employee handbook are the foundation. They spell out disciplinary procedures, progressive discipline steps, and termination policies the employer was supposed to follow. Skipped steps strengthen your case. Performance reviews and disciplinary write-ups establish your standing before the firing; positive reviews right up until you complained about discrimination tell a timeline story on their own.

Electronic communications are often the most useful evidence you can preserve. Emails and text messages from supervisors capture tone and reasoning in real time and are hard to explain away later. Keep personal copies of any messages showing discriminatory language, shifting justifications, or evidence that similarly situated coworkers were treated differently. A contemporaneous log of verbal conversations, with dates, participants, and what was said, helps reconstruct interactions that never made it into writing. Investigators tend to credit notes written as events unfolded more than reconstructions built months later from memory.

Identify coworkers who witnessed key incidents or heard discriminatory remarks; they may eventually provide statements. Keep your written termination notice, any separation agreement offered, and all wage statements and pay stubs, which become essential for calculating back pay and lost benefits.

No federal law guarantees access to your personnel file after termination, but roughly half the states grant current or former employees some right to inspect or copy their records. Check your state’s rules and request the file in writing as soon as you can. Store everything in a secure personal location, not on company devices or cloud accounts.

File a Charge of Discrimination With the EEOC

For discrimination and retaliation claims under federal law, you must file a Charge of Discrimination with the EEOC before you can sue.⁴ The charge is a signed statement asserting that your employer engaged in unlawful discrimination, and it triggers the agency’s authority to investigate.⁵ The EEOC designates it as Form 5.⁶

What You Need to Include

Whether you file online or by mail, the EEOC needs the same core information:⁷

Your name, address, email, and phone number
The employer’s name, address, email, phone, and approximate number of employees
A concise description of what happened, including the termination date and any remarks or conduct suggesting an unlawful motive
The protected characteristic you believe motivated the termination (race, sex, age, disability, retaliation, and so on)
Your signature

The description doesn’t need to read like a legal brief, but it should connect the adverse action to the reason you believe discrimination or retaliation drove it. Tying each piece of evidence to specific facts in your description makes the investigator’s job easier.

How to Submit

The online route begins with an inquiry through the EEOC Public Portal. The agency then schedules an interview before a formal charge is drafted, so it’s not a one-click filing.⁷ You can also mail a signed letter with all the required information to your nearest EEOC office, or file in person at a regional field office.

If your state has a Fair Employment Practices Agency, filing with the EEOC automatically cross-files your charge with the state agency, and vice versa.⁸ You don’t need to file separately with both.

What Happens After You File

Within 10 days of your filing, the EEOC sends a notice to your former employer.⁹ You’ll get a confirmation with your charge number and investigator contact. Respond quickly to any request for more information; a missed agency deadline can stall or weaken your case.

Mediation

Shortly after the charge is filed, the EEOC offers both parties free voluntary mediation. It’s worth considering. Mediation typically resolves charges in under three months, compared with 10 months or longer for a full investigation.¹⁰ Sessions usually last three to four hours, and a trained neutral helps both sides negotiate without deciding who is right.

Either party can decline, and the charge simply moves to investigation. If mediation happens but doesn’t produce an agreement, the same thing happens with no penalty for trying. A signed written agreement, though, is enforceable in court like any contract.¹⁰ You can bring an attorney, but you don’t need one.

Investigation

If mediation doesn’t resolve things, the EEOC investigates. The investigator may request documents from both sides, interview witnesses, and visit the workplace. Timelines vary widely, from a few months for straightforward cases to well over a year for complex ones. You can check status through the EEOC Public Portal.

At the end, the EEOC either finds reasonable cause and attempts conciliation with the employer, or issues a dismissal. Either way, your next step is the same: the EEOC issues a Notice of Right to Sue.

Get Your Notice of Right to Sue

You cannot file a federal discrimination lawsuit without a Notice of Right to Sue. The EEOC issues it automatically when it closes the investigation. If you don’t want to wait, you can request the notice yourself once 180 days have passed since your charge was filed, and the EEOC must grant that request.⁴ Before day 180, the agency will only issue an early notice if it decides it can’t finish in time.

From the day you receive that notice, you have 90 days to file suit.⁴ This is the deadline people most often blow, usually while still deciding whether to hire an attorney. Ninety days goes fast, and courts rarely grant extensions.

File the Lawsuit in Federal Court

With your right-to-sue letter in hand, file a Complaint and Summons with the clerk of the appropriate federal district court.¹¹ The Complaint lays out the facts, identifies the legal violations, and states the relief you’re seeking, such as reinstatement, back pay, or compensatory damages.

Filing Fees and Fee Waivers

The filing fee for a new civil action in federal district court is $350 under the statute, plus an administrative fee that brings the typical total to $405.¹² If you can’t afford it, apply to proceed in forma pauperis by submitting an affidavit showing financial hardship. If approved, the court waives the prepayment.¹³

Serve Your Former Employer

After the clerk processes your filing, you receive a stamped Summons that must be formally delivered to your former employer. This step, called service of process, notifies the company and starts its clock to respond. A professional process server or law enforcement officer typically handles delivery, serving the company’s registered agent or an authorized representative. Fees generally run from $20 to $100.

The server then files an affidavit of service with the court proving the employer was properly notified.¹¹ Sloppy service is one of the easiest ways to get a case dismissed before any arguments are heard.

Attorney Costs

Many employment attorneys take wrongful termination cases on contingency, meaning they collect a percentage of your recovery instead of charging upfront. Employment contingency fees typically run 33% to 50% of the award or settlement, depending on complexity and how far the case progresses. Hourly rates, when charged, generally range from $100 to $500 based on experience and location. Most employment attorneys offer free or low-cost initial consultations.

Keep Looking for Work

You are legally required to make a reasonable effort to find a new job while your claim is pending. This is called the duty to mitigate damages, and failing to do it can reduce or wipe out the back pay you’re owed even if you prove your firing was illegal.

You don’t have to take the first job that comes along. The search has to be for work substantially similar to what you lost in pay, responsibilities, and conditions. You aren’t required to accept a demotion, switch careers, or move somewhere unreasonably far. But you do need to show an ongoing, good-faith effort.

Document every application, networking contact, recruiter call, and interview. Keep a log with dates and details. The employer bears the burden of proving you failed to mitigate, but defense attorneys look for a thin or empty job-search record first. If you take a lower-paying position out of financial necessity, wages from that inferior job generally won’t be deducted from your damages.

What You Can Recover

The remedies depend on which law your claim falls under and how large the employer is.¹⁴

Back pay covers wages and benefits lost between your termination and the resolution of your case. It’s often the largest component and has no statutory cap.

Front pay compensates you for future lost earnings when reinstatement isn’t practical, such as when the working relationship has become too hostile or no comparable position is available.¹⁵

Compensatory and punitive damages cover emotional harm and punish egregious employer conduct, but federal law caps the combined total based on workforce size:¹⁶

15 to 100 employees: $50,000
101 to 200 employees: $100,000
201 to 500 employees: $200,000
More than 500 employees: $300,000

These caps apply only to compensatory and punitive damages, not to back pay, front pay, or attorney fees. Courts can also order reinstatement, though monetary awards are more common in practice.

One trap to know about before rejecting any settlement: under federal court rules, if the defendant makes an Offer of Judgment and you turn it down, then win less at trial than the offer, you can be responsible for the defendant’s post-offer costs.¹⁷ Discuss any formal offer with your attorney before saying no.

1
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Small Business Requirements
2
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits For Filing A Charge
3
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Equal Pay/Compensation Discrimination
4
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing A Charge of Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Selected EEOC Forms
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPAs) and Dual Filing
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After You File a Charge
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mediation
11
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1914
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1915 – Proceedings In Forma Pauperis
14
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Remedies For Employment Discrimination
15
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Front Pay
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1981a
17
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 68 – Offer of Judgment