Where is a San Jose discrimination lawsuit filed?

San Jose is in Santa Clara County, so FEHA discrimination lawsuits are filed in the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Before filing, you generally must obtain a right-to-sue notice from the California Civil Rights Department.

I am over 40 and was replaced by someone younger for 'culture fit.' Is that age discrimination?

It may be. FEHA protects workers 40 and over from age discrimination. Vague rationales like 'culture fit' or 'energy' can be tested against comparators, shifting reasons, and timing, and may conceal unlawful age bias.

Do I need a right-to-sue notice before suing?

Yes. FEHA claims generally require first filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) and obtaining a right-to-sue notice before a lawsuit can be filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. An attorney can often handle that step for you.

My San Jose startup is small. Does discrimination law still apply?

Most likely yes. California's FEHA covers employers with five or more employees, far broader than the federal Title VII threshold of fifteen. Many smaller San Jose startups and vendors are subject to state discrimination law.

How is discrimination proven, and what does it cost?

Discrimination is usually proven circumstantially through comparators, shifting explanations, suspicious timing, and patterns of exclusion, without a direct admission. Cases are typically handled on contingency, so there is no attorney fee unless there is a recovery, and consultations are free.

San Jose Discrimination Lawyer

San Jose employees who were fired, demoted, or passed over because of a protected characteristic have strong protections under California law. The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, pregnancy, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation, and more, and it covers employers with as few as five employees. Attorney Mihran M. Ghazaryan represents Santa Clara County workers on contingency, with service in English and Armenian. In the capital of Silicon Valley, age and national-origin discrimination and accommodation disputes are common. Most cases begin with a complaint to the California Civil Rights Department and a right-to-sue notice before any lawsuit is filed.

Workplace Discrimination matters in San Jose

Workplace Discrimination in San Jose

San Jose is the heart of Silicon Valley, dominated by technology, software, hardware, and semiconductor employers, along with a large healthcare sector, manufacturing, professional services, and a sizable immigrant and visa-holding workforce. These industries generate distinctive discrimination patterns: experienced engineers in their forties and fifties pushed out in favor of younger hires under the banner of "culture fit," foreign-born employees subjected to national-origin bias, or workers sidelined after disclosing a disability or requesting medical leave.

California's FEHA makes it unlawful to take an adverse action, including termination, demotion, a pay cut, or denial of a promotion, because of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, age (40 and over), disability, medical condition, religion, or sexual orientation, among others. FEHA covers employers with five or more employees, far broader than the federal Title VII floor of fifteen, so many smaller San Jose startups and vendors are covered. Age discrimination protections apply to workers 40 and over, and "culture fit" or "energy" rationales can mask unlawful age bias.

Pregnancy, Disability, and the Interactive Process

Many San Jose claims center on a failure to accommodate. 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 consider reasonable accommodations such as modified duties, remote arrangements, leave, schedule changes, or equipment. Religious accommodation works similarly. Ignoring a doctor's note, refusing to explore alternatives, or retaliating against you for requesting help can each violate FEHA, even absent a formal termination.

Proving the Case and Where It Is Heard

Discrimination is rarely admitted, so claims usually rest on circumstantial evidence: comparators outside your protected group who were retained or promoted, shifting or inconsistent explanations, suspicious timing after a complaint or accommodation request, and a pattern of exclusion. Before suing, you generally must obtain a right-to-sue notice from the California Civil Rights Department. San Jose is in Santa Clara County, so FEHA lawsuits are filed in the Santa Clara 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 change its practices. Preserving emails, performance reviews, pay records, stock and equity documents, text messages, and a clear, dated timeline strengthens any claim and lets 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.