Contact Massey & Duffy
Flat-Fee Pricing
All services are handled by phone, email, and video - anywhere in Florida.
EEOC Charges: $1,500
A Charge of Discrimination is the document that starts many workplace discrimination cases,. Filed carelessly, it can narrow the claims you are allowed to bring later. We interview you, draft the charge, and file it with the EEOC and/or the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
Employer Demand: $600
Sometimes an employer will not take you seriously until the letter arrives on law firm letterhead. A demand letter lays out what happened, what law it violated, and what it will take to resolve the matter before anyone files suit. We draft it, sign it, and send it. Many disputes end here.
Severance Review: $600
A severance agreement asks you to release every claim you have, including claims you may not know about yet. Most people sign because they do not know what else to do. We read it, tell you exactly what you are giving up, tell you whether the number is reasonable for your situation, and tell you what is negotiable. Usually within a few days.
Employment and Civil Rights
Florida Employment Law
Since 2003, Massey & Duffy has represented workers in employment, civil rights, and whistleblower matters throughout Florida. The office is in Gainesville. The work is done by phone, email, and video, so where you live in the state does not limit who can represent you.
Every engagement starts with a paid consultation. You will know the fee before any work begins, and for the services listed below you will know the entire fee, not an hourly estimate that grows.
Cases That Go Further
Not every matter fits a flat fee. When a case needs to be filed in state or federal court, the fee arrangement depends on the claim. Discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower cases are often handled on a contingency basis, meaning no fee unless there is a recovery. Wage and hour cases under the Fair Labor Standards Act carry a fee-shifting provision, which means a prevailing employee's attorney's fees are paid by the employer. Business and contract disputes are usually hourly, sometimes partially contingent.
We will tell you which category your case falls into during the consultation, along with an honest read on what it is worth and what it will take.
What We Handle
Discrimination. Race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, religion, age, disability, and marital status. Termination is only one form it takes. Failure to hire, failure to promote, demotion, unequal pay, discriminatory discipline, and harassment are all actionable under Title VII, the ADEA, the ADA, and the Florida Civil Rights Act.
Retaliation and whistleblower claims. Florida and federal law protect employees who report illegal conduct, refuse to participate in it, or complain about discrimination. Retaliation is rarely announced. It shows up as a sudden negative review, a schedule change, a reassignment, or a write-up for something that was never a problem before.
Wage and hour. Unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work, misclassification as exempt, tip credit violations, unpaid commissions, and minimum wage claims under the FLSA and Florida law.
Sexual harassment. Quid pro quo demands and hostile work environment claims, including verbal harassment, messages, and conduct that falls short of physical contact. If you are considering quitting, talk to a lawyer first. Resigning can make a valid claim significantly harder to prove.
Disability and accommodation. Failure to accommodate, termination because of a disability, and termination because an employer believed you had one. Retaliation for requesting an accommodation is itself a violation.
Non-competes and severance. Review, negotiation, and litigation of non-compete, confidentiality, and severance agreements for employees and employers.
Civil rights. First Amendment retaliation, false arrest, excessive force, and other Section 1983 claims against government employers and officials.
Invasion of privacy and defamation. Disclosure of medical records or disability status, workplace surveillance in private areas, and public disclosure of private facts.
For Employers
Most companies do not set out to violate employment laws. The laws are numerous, they change, and the courts reinterpret them. We review handbooks, policies, job descriptions, applications, and investigation forms, and we conduct internal investigations when an employee raises an allegation that has to be taken seriously.
A firm known for representing employees brings something particular to an internal investigation. It is evidence of good faith, and it holds up better if the matter is later litigated.
How Cases Are Selected
We take a small number of cases at a time. That is a deliberate choice. A high-volume practice cannot give any single case real attention, and employment cases are won on details that only surface when someone actually reads the file.
We prepare every case as though it will be tried. Employers and their insurers settle cases at fair value when they believe the other side is ready to go. Most of our cases resolve without a trial, and that is the reason why.
Talk to a Lawyer
If something happened at work and you are not sure whether it was legal, that question has an answer, and it is usually worth getting it early. Deadlines in employment cases are short. An EEOC charge generally has to be filed within 300 days, and some claims have far less time than that.
Consultations are scheduled and paid. Everything you tell us is confidential and protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Michael O. Massey, J.D., L.L.M.
Michael O. Massey founded Massey & Duffy in Gainesville in 2003. Three things from his background matter to your case more than the rest.
A year of reading motions from the judge's side of the bench changes how you write them. He drafts for the person who will actually decide your case. He reads financial records the way other lawyers read depositions. Michael holds an LL.M. in Taxation and worked as an International Tax Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche before entering private practice. In wage cases, whistleblower cases involving fraud, and any case where damages are disputed, that background does real work.
He was trained to write. Michael earned his J.D. with High Honors from the University of Florida College of Law, graduating in the top ten percent of his class, and served as Senior Research Editor of the Florida Journal of International Law. He has published in The Florida Bar Journal. Most cases are won or lost on paper long before anyone sees a jury.
Civil Rights and Constitutional Claims
Civil Rights Claims
Some of the worst conduct we see does not come from a private employer. It comes from a government agency, a sheriff's office, a school board, or a state department, and when it does, the Constitution is part of the claim.
We bring civil rights actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and related statutes, including:
First Amendment retaliation. Public employees do not give up the right to speak. When a government employer disciplines, transfers, demotes, or fires someone for speaking on a matter of public concern, for filing a grievance, or for petitioning the government, that is actionable.
False arrest and malicious prosecution. Arrests made without probable cause, and charges pursued after the evidence has fallen apart.
Excessive force. Force that goes beyond what the situation called for, including cases ending in serious injury or death.
Due process and equal protection. Terminations without the hearing a public employee was entitled to, and selective enforcement against a person because of who they are.
Municipal and supervisory liability. When the violation traces back to an official policy, a custom, or a failure to train rather than to one officer's decision.
These cases carry rules that ordinary employment cases do not. Qualified immunity, sovereign immunity, the pre-suit notice requirement in Florida Statutes § 768.28, and short limitations periods all decide cases before the facts are ever heard. They are also the reason a civil rights claim needs to be evaluated early rather than after a deadline has passed.
BLOCK 9 — Discrimination in Detail
What Discrimination Law Actually Covers
Discrimination is more than being fired. Under Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, and the Florida Civil Rights Act, an employer may not treat you differently because of a protected characteristic in any term or condition of employment.
Section 760.10 of the Florida Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful for an employer to discharge, to fail or refuse to hire, or otherwise to discriminate against an individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status.
In practice, that covers:
Failure to hire and failure to promote
Demotion and unwanted transfer
Unequal pay for the same work
Discriminatory discipline, including write-ups that similarly situated coworkers never receive
Harassment severe or pervasive enough to change the conditions of the job
Termination
Age discrimination deserves a separate word. It is the one form of discrimination that employers and juries still sometimes treat casually, and it is often dressed up as restructuring, a culture fit problem, or an early retirement offer that was never really optional. The ADEA and the Florida Civil Rights Act both prohibit it.
The Quitting Warning
Before You Quit, Read This
If you are being harassed or treated badly at work, the instinct is to leave. Understand what leaving costs you first.
You can sometimes recover whether you were fired or resigned. But courts are reluctant to let an employee who quit recover damages unless the employee can show the conditions were so intolerable that no reasonable person could have been expected to stay. That is a real burden, and it is much harder to carry than proving you were fired.
There are also steps that matter before you go. Whether you complained, who you complained to, whether the employer had a policy you were required to use, and what the employer did in response all shape the case. So does the timing of a resignation relative to a complaint.
The consultation is worth having before you give notice, not after.
Whistleblower and Qui Tam
Whistleblower Retaliation
Florida's private and public whistleblower acts, found at Florida Statutes §§ 448.102 and 112.3187, protect employees who report a violation of law, refuse to participate in one, or testify about one. Federal law protects reports of fraud against the government through qui tam actions under the False Claims Act.
Two categories come up most often. The first is the employee who reports illegal conduct, whether it is safety, billing, tax, environmental, licensing, or public records, and is then pushed out. The second is the employee who is punished for reporting discrimination or harassment, which is separately protected as retaliation even when the underlying complaint is never proven.
The statutes have prerequisites, and some of them are unforgiving. The public whistleblower act requires written notice to the appropriate official before certain claims can proceed. Miss the step and the claim is gone regardless of how strong the facts are. This is one of the areas where getting advice early changes the outcome most.
Wage and Hour
Unpaid Wages and Overtime
The Fair Labor Standards Act guarantees minimum wage and time-and-a-half for hours over forty in a workweek. Florida has its own minimum wage provision in the state constitution. The principles are simple. The application is not.
Common violations include:
Overtime paid at the straight hourly rate instead of one and a half times
Work performed off the clock before or after a shift
Misclassification as exempt, usually by giving someone a manager title and no managerial authority
Tip credit violations, including improper tip pooling and untracked side work
Unpaid commissions and improper deductions, such as charging employees for uniforms
Equal Pay Act violations, meaning different pay for the same work based on sex
The FLSA shifts fees to the employer when the employee prevails, which is why these cases are viable even when the unpaid amount is modest.
Agreements and Privacy
Non-Competes, Severance, and Workplace Privacy
A non-compete is enforceable in Florida only if it is reasonable in time, geographic area, and scope, and only if it protects a legitimate business interest. Many are drafted far broader than that. Whether you are being asked to sign one, being threatened under one, or trying to enforce one, the analysis is the same and it starts with reading the document.
Severance agreements ask you to release every claim you have, including claims you may not know about. Review is inexpensive relative to what is being given up.
Employment does not end your right to privacy. Disclosure of your medical records or disability status to coworkers, recording or surveillance in private areas such as restrooms and changing areas, and public disclosure of private facts can all support a claim. These cases sound extreme until you handle a few of them.
Coverage and Contact
Gainesville Office, Statewide Practice
The office is at 855 East University Avenue in Gainesville. The practice is not limited to it. Consultations, document review, EEOC charges, demand letters, and case management are handled by phone, email, and video, and we appear in Florida circuit courts and in the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Florida.
Employment deadlines are shorter than most people expect. An EEOC charge generally must be filed within 300 days of the discriminatory act. Some claims allow far less. If something happened at work, the time to find out where you stand is now.