Do I need to file with a state agency before suing in Pasadena?

Yes. FEHA claims generally require first filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) and obtaining a right-to-sue notice. A discrimination lawsuit for a Pasadena worker is then filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

My employer is a small lab or firm. Does discrimination law apply?

Usually yes. California's FEHA covers employers with five or more employees, which is broader than the federal Title VII threshold of fifteen. Many smaller Pasadena research, professional, and healthcare employers are covered.

How is discrimination proven when the employer gives a neutral reason?

Through circumstantial evidence. That can include comparators treated more favorably, shifting or inconsistent reasons for the action, suspicious timing after a complaint or accommodation request, and a documented pattern of exclusion. A direct admission is not required.

I am pregnant and was denied lighter duties. Is that a violation?

It may be. Employers must engage in a good-faith interactive process and provide reasonable accommodation for pregnancy-related limitations and disabilities. Refusing to discuss options, ignoring a doctor's note, or punishing you for asking can violate FEHA.

What are the deadlines and what does it cost?

Deadlines are strict and fact-specific; you generally have a limited window to file with the CRD and typically one year after a right-to-sue notice to file suit. Cases are usually handled on contingency, so there is no attorney fee unless there is a recovery, and consultations are free.

Pasadena Discrimination Lawyer

Pasadena employees who were treated unfairly at work because of a protected trait are not without recourse. Under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, pregnancy, disability, age, religion, and more is unlawful at any employer with five or more employees. Attorney Mihran M. Ghazaryan is an employee-side employment lawyer who represents Pasadena workers on contingency, with service in English and Armenian. Whether the issue is a denied promotion, a refusal to accommodate a pregnancy or disability, or a termination that followed a complaint, most cases begin with a Civil Rights Department complaint and a right-to-sue notice before suit.

Workplace Discrimination matters in Pasadena

Workplace Discrimination in Pasadena

Pasadena's workforce is anchored by science and research institutions, higher education, a large healthcare and hospital sector, professional services and law and accounting firms, biotech, and a busy hospitality and retail scene around Old Pasadena and the Rose Bowl. In these environments discrimination often appears in subtle but unlawful forms: a researcher passed over for a role given to a younger comparator, a clinic employee denied disability accommodations, a pregnant administrator pushed out instead of given light duty, or a worker excluded from projects after reporting bias.

California's FEHA prohibits adverse employment actions, such as firing, demotion, pay cuts, and denied advancement, taken because of a protected characteristic. Those categories include race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, age (40 and over), disability, medical condition, religion, and sexual orientation, among others. FEHA applies to employers with five or more employees, a far broader reach than the federal Title VII minimum of fifteen, which brings many of Pasadena's smaller firms, labs, and practices squarely within the law.

Disability, Pregnancy, and Religious Accommodation

A significant portion of Pasadena claims involve accommodation. If you have a disability, a medical condition, or a pregnancy-related limitation, your employer must engage in a timely, good-faith interactive process to weigh reasonable accommodations such as modified duties, leave, schedule changes, or assistive equipment. Religious accommodations follow a similar framework. When an employer refuses to discuss reasonable options, disregards medical documentation, or retaliates against you for asking, FEHA may have been violated even absent a formal termination.

Building and Filing Your Claim

Because employers rarely state a discriminatory motive, these cases turn on circumstantial proof: comparators outside your protected group who fared better, shifting or inconsistent reasons for the decision, suspicious timing after a complaint or accommodation request, and a pattern of exclusion. Before filing suit you generally must secure a right-to-sue notice from the California Civil Rights Department. Pasadena sits within Los Angeles County, so FEHA lawsuits are typically filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

What a Claim Can Recover

A prevailing employee under FEHA may seek remedies that can include lost past and future wages and benefits, compensation for emotional distress, and, in appropriate cases, reinstatement and orders requiring the employer to correct its practices. Keeping emails, performance reviews, pay records, text messages, and a detailed, dated timeline gives any claim a stronger foundation and lets an attorney assess 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.