Gainesville Employment Lawyer
Massey & Duffy, PLLC represents employees in Gainesville and across Alachua County who have been fired, demoted, harassed, denied an accommodation, or shorted on pay. Our office is on East University Avenue, a few blocks from the Alachua County Courthouse and less than two miles from the University of Florida campus.Most people who call us are not sure yet whether what happened to them is illegal. That is the normal starting point. Plenty of workplace treatment is unfair without being unlawful, and the line between the two is not obvious from the inside. The first conversation is about figuring out which side of that line your situation falls on, and what the deadline is.
Where a Gainesville Employment Case Actually Goes
Employment claims do not all start in court, and the path depends on the type of claim.Discrimination and harassment claims start with an administrative charge. You cannot file a federal discrimination lawsuit until you have filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and received a right-to-sue notice. Alachua County falls under the EEOC's Miami District Office, not the Tampa Field Office, which surprises people who assume Gainesville is handled out of Tampa. In practice this matters less than it used to, because charges are filed and investigated largely through the EEOC's online portal rather than in person.You can also file with the Florida Commission on Human Relations in Tallahassee, which enforces the Florida Civil Rights Act. The two agencies have a worksharing agreement, so a charge filed with one is generally dual-filed with the other. The deadlines are different, though, and that difference is the single most common way people lose claims they would otherwise have won. See the deadline section below.Wage claims, whistleblower claims, and breach of contract claims do not require an agency charge and can be filed directly in court.Federal lawsuits filed from Gainesville go to the Gainesville Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, which sits downtown.State lawsuits go to the Eighth Judicial Circuit, which covers Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy, and Union counties.
Who You Work For Changes the Case
Gainesville's employment market is unusual. It is dominated by public and quasi-public institutions, and the identity of your employer changes which laws apply, which defenses you will face, and in some situations whether you can recover money damages at all.The University of Florida and other state entities. State agencies have Eleventh Amendment immunity from certain federal claims. Congress validly stripped that immunity for Title VII, so race, sex, religion, and national origin discrimination claims against UF proceed normally. It did not do so for the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which means damages claims under those statutes against a state employer generally cannot go forward. The ADEA case that settled this point came out of Florida's own state university system.That is not the end of the analysis. Because UF accepts federal funding, disability claims can often be brought under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act instead, which reaches essentially the same conduct. Getting this right at the pleading stage is the difference between a case that survives a motion to dismiss and one that does not.UF Health and Shands. The hospital entities are structured differently from the university itself, and the immunity analysis does not automatically carry over. Which entity actually employed you is worth pinning down early.City of Gainesville, GRU, Alachua County, Alachua County Public Schools, Santa Fe College, and the Sheriff's Office. Public employees have protections private employees do not. If you were disciplined for speaking out on a matter of public concern, you may have a First Amendment retaliation claim under 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983 in addition to any statutory claim. If you reported misconduct through the right channel, Florida's public-sector whistleblower statute, section 112.3187, may apply. Public employers also carry procedural traps, including pre-suit notice requirements that are easy to miss.The Malcom Randall VA Medical Center and other federal employers. Federal employees are on an entirely separate track. You must contact an agency EEO counselor within 45 days of the discriminatory act. That is the shortest deadline in employment law and it is missed constantly.Private employers. Most of Title VII, the ADA, and the Florida Civil Rights Act apply only to employers with 15 or more employees. The ADEA threshold is 20. Below those numbers, the analysis shifts to other theories, and there often still is one.
What We Handle
Wrongful termination and retaliationWorkplace discrimination, including race, gender, age, disability, and religious claimsSexual harassmentWhistleblower retaliationUnpaid wages and overtimeNon-compete and severance disputesEEOC and FCHR chargesFirst Amendment retaliation and Section 1983 claims against public employers
Flat Fees for Work That Can Be Defined
Not every employment problem needs a contingency-fee lawsuit, and not everyone wants to hand over a third of a recovery to get a document drafted correctly.For work with a clear beginning and end, we quote a flat fee up front. That includes drafting an EEOC or FCHR charge, reviewing a severance agreement before you sign it, analyzing whether a non-compete is enforceable, and sending a demand letter. You know the cost before we start.Litigation is handled on a contingency or hybrid basis depending on the case. We will tell you which structure applies to your situation in the first conversation rather than after you have already invested time.
You Do Not Need to Come to Our Office
Consultations are handled by phone, email, and video. We do this for every client, in Gainesville and elsewhere in Florida, because it keeps costs down and because most of what happens early in a case is document review rather than face-to-face meeting.If you would rather meet in person, our office at 855 East University Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601 is available by appointment.
Talk to a Gainesville Employment Lawyer
Massey & Duffy, PLLC 855 East University Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601 (352) 505-8900
Disclaimer
The information on this website is general and is not legal advice for your situation. Contacting Massey & Duffy, PLLC by phone, text, email, or through this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. That relationship begins only when we and you sign a written agreement. Results depend on the specific facts and law of each case, and prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter.