I was told to 'speak only English' at my Glendale job. Is that discrimination?

It can be. FEHA protects national origin, ancestry, and language characteristics. Blanket English-only rules that are not justified by a genuine business necessity, and mistreatment tied to your accent or ethnicity, may amount to unlawful national-origin discrimination under California law.

Do I need a right-to-sue notice before I file a lawsuit?

Yes. FEHA claims generally require first filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) and receiving a right-to-sue notice. After that, a discrimination lawsuit for a Glendale worker is typically filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

My employer is small. Does California discrimination law still apply?

Usually yes. FEHA covers employers with five or more employees, which is broader than the federal Title VII threshold of fifteen. Many small Glendale businesses, including medical offices and family retailers, fall within its reach.

How is discrimination proven if the employer gave a neutral reason?

Through circumstantial evidence. That can include comparators treated more favorably, inconsistent or shifting reasons for the action, suspicious timing after a complaint or accommodation request, and a pattern of exclusion. You do not need a direct admission to prevail.

How much does it cost to bring a discrimination claim?

Most employee-side discrimination cases are handled on contingency, so you owe no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. Consultations are generally free and available in English and Armenian.

Glendale Discrimination Lawyer

Glendale workers who suspect they were fired, demoted, or denied an opportunity because of a protected trait have real options under California law. The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) bars discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, pregnancy, disability, age, religion, and more, and it covers employers with just five or more employees. Attorney Mihran M. Ghazaryan is a Glendale-based, employee-side employment lawyer who represents local workers on contingency, with service available in English and Armenian. Because Glendale has one of the largest Armenian-American communities in the country, national origin and accent-based mistreatment are concerns the office takes seriously. Most cases start with a Civil Rights Department complaint and a right-to-sue notice.

Workplace Discrimination matters in Glendale

Workplace Discrimination in Glendale

Glendale's economy blends professional offices along Brand Boulevard, healthcare and senior-care facilities, retail at the Americana and Glendale Galleria, auto dealerships, banking and insurance back-offices, and a dense small-business community. Many of these employers are mid-sized or small, which matters because California's FEHA reaches any business with five or more employees, far below the federal Title VII floor of fifteen. A medical office, a dealership, or a family-run retailer in Glendale can all be held accountable for discrimination.

Glendale is also home to one of the nation's largest Armenian-American populations, and national-origin discrimination is a recurring problem: employees mocked for an accent, told to "speak only English" outside of any business need, passed over for advancement, or terminated after complaining about ethnic remarks. FEHA protects national origin, ancestry, language characteristics, and religion, and it bars both adverse actions and a hostile pattern of mistreatment tied to those traits.

Pregnancy, Disability, and the Interactive Process

A great many Glendale claims involve accommodation. If you are pregnant or have a disability or medical condition, your employer must engage in a good-faith interactive process to identify reasonable accommodations such as modified duties, leave, schedule adjustments, or equipment. Religious accommodation works similarly. Refusing to discuss a reasonable request, ignoring a doctor's note, or punishing you for asking can each violate FEHA, even where there was never an outright firing. The duty is interactive: an employer cannot simply deny a request without exploring workable alternatives.

Proving Your Case and Where It Is Filed

Employers rarely state a discriminatory reason out loud, so these cases are usually built on circumstantial evidence: coworkers outside your protected group treated better, shifting explanations for the decision, timing that follows close on a complaint or accommodation request, and a documented pattern. Before filing suit you generally must obtain a right-to-sue notice from the California Civil Rights Department. Glendale falls within Los Angeles County, so FEHA lawsuits are typically filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

What a Successful Claim Can Address

FEHA allows a prevailing employee to seek remedies that can include lost wages and benefits, compensation for emotional distress, and, in appropriate cases, reinstatement and an order requiring the employer to change its practices. Saving emails, performance reviews, pay stubs, text messages, and a clear, dated timeline of events makes any claim stronger and helps an attorney evaluate it early.

How Mihran M. Ghazaryan helps with workplace discrimination

Discrimination is rarely admitted, so Mihran M. Ghazaryan builds it from the evidence around it — how comparable employees were treated, shifting explanations, the accommodation requests that went unanswered, and the timing. He handles the FEHA complaint and right-to-sue process, and presses the employer on the interactive-process and reasonable-accommodation duties California imposes. You work directly with the attorney assembling that record.

Types of discrimination cases we handle

Adverse-action discrimination

Termination, demotion, denied promotion, or pay disparity tied to a protected characteristic rather than performance.

Pregnancy and disability discrimination

Failure to accommodate, or punishment for needing leave or a reasonable accommodation under FEHA and the PDLL.

Failure to accommodate / interactive process

California requires employers to engage in a good-faith interactive process and provide reasonable accommodation for disability, pregnancy, and religion.

What you may be able to recover

Every discrimination case case is different, but California law lets wronged employees pursue several categories of relief. We document each one — pay records, performance reviews, communications — so nothing is left on the table.

Back pay and lost benefits

Wages, commissions, and benefits you lost from the date of the wrongful act — a core remedy in wrongful-termination and discrimination claims.

Front pay

Future earnings you're likely to lose when reinstatement isn't realistic, measured until you can reasonably be expected to find comparable work.

Emotional distress

Compensation for the anxiety, humiliation, and harm to wellbeing that unlawful treatment at work can cause.

Penalties and punitive damages

Statutory penalties for wage violations, and — where an employer acted with malice or oppression — punitive damages meant to deter the conduct.

Attorney's fees and costs

Many California employment statutes shift the employee's reasonable attorney's fees and costs onto an employer that broke the law.

Reinstatement and policy change

Where it fits the case, getting your job back or forcing the employer to correct the practice that harmed you.

How we work

Free, confidential consultation

We listen first and tell you plainly whether you appear to have a claim. The conversation is confidential and there's no fee to have it — and we're careful if you're still employed.

Preserve the record

Offer letters, handbooks, performance reviews, emails and texts, pay stubs, and a dated timeline. The contemporaneous record is what wins an employment case, so we lock it down early.

Administrative exhaustion and the demand

FEHA claims generally require a complaint with the Civil Rights Department and a right-to-sue notice first. We handle that step, then present a documented demand to the employer.

Litigation when necessary

Many matters resolve through negotiation or mediation. When an employer won't be reasonable, we file and prepare the case fully — which is usually what moves the number.

What to do right away

Keep a dated log of incidents — what happened, who was present, what was said.

Save performance reviews and any written comparisons to other employees.

Put accommodation requests in writing and keep copies.

Report through your employer's stated process where it's safe to do so.

Preserve the record to a personal account and talk to a lawyer about the CRD complaint.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.