Have you been fired, demoted, or treated unfairly at work after reporting something illegal or refusing to take part in it? You might have a workplace retaliation case — but how do you know for sure? In this video, Robert Ottinger breaks down the three critical pillars that make a strong retaliation case, using a real-life example of a woman who won an $8.8 million verdict in California. ✅ What counts as “protected activity” ✅ Why timing is everything ✅ How your work history can strengthen your claim This isn’t legal advice, but it will help you identify if you may have a solid case. If you believe you’ve experienced retaliation at work, contact a qualified employment lawyer. #WorkplaceRetaliation #EmploymentLaw #RetaliationCase #LegalTips Other Info: Today, we're talking about workplace retaliation. If you have a retaliation case, you need to know how to prove it. But today, I'm not going to give you a lecture about retaliation law because that's not what you need. Instead, what you do need, you need to understand and recognise are the three pillars behind every good retaliation case. Because once you know those three pillars, you'll be able to apply them to your situation and improve your case. Transcript: Today, we're talking about workplace retaliation. If you have a retaliation case, you need to know how to prove it. But today, I'm not going to give you a lecture about retaliation law, because that's not what you need. Instead, what you do need, you need to understand and recognize the three pillars behind every good retaliation case. Because once you understand those three pillars, you'll be able to apply them to your situation and prove your case. So let's get into it. But first, remember, this isn't legal advice. It's just a YouTube video. But in this video, I'm going to explain how you can identify whether or not you have a good retaliation case. In fact, for watching this, you think you do have such a case. You should contact an employment lawyer to help you. If you want to contact us, you can click the link in the description below. Let's talk about the three pillars. The first pillar is a substantial period of satisfactory performance at work. This means that you've been working at the company for a while and nothing bad has happened. You've done a relatively good job. Now, the longer the better. we generally look for at least a period of one year. So that's pill number one. Pill number two is something called protected activity. Protected activity is a legal term that means that you either were asked by your company to engage in some kind of illegal conduct and you refused, or you observed illegal conduct in the workplace and you reported it. Now it could be any kind of illegal conduct. It could be observing and reporting unsafe work conditions, or employment discrimination, or sexual harassment, or maybe a violation of the wage and hour laws, or fraud, tax fraud. anything. So that's protected activity. And if you report it, it's better if it's in writing. That's pillar number two. Pillar number three is adverse employment action taken by the company within 90 days of the protected activity. So that means that if you report the company for doing something illegal or you refuse to do something illegal yourself, and then the company does something bad to you, like fire you or demote you within 90 days of making that report, that is the third pillar. Now let's demonstrate how these three pillars work in an actual case. Tamara Evans, worked for a company up in Sacramento, California for many years. She did good work. But one day she noticed that her company was engaging in illegal activity. Her company was required to submit compliance reports to the government. And she thought that these reports contained fraudulent information. So she reported it to an outside agency. Not too long after that, Ms. Evans was accused of misconduct at work and then she was fired. So those are the facts. Let's see if Ms. Evans has the three pillars needed for a great retaliation case. The first pillar, as you know, is a substantial period of satisfactory performance. Now, Ms. Evans worked for her company for many years, I think like six or seven years. So she had that. And during that six or seven year period, there were no instances of any kind of serious misconduct or discipline or performance allegations. So she had the first pillar, which is a good record of satisfactory performance. Pillar number two. protected activity. Did Ms. Evans engage in protected activity? Well, yes, she did. She reported her company for fraud. She reported it to an outside agency, but she didn't have to do that. She could have just reported it internally as well. That's also a protected activity. So now we know Ms. Evans satisfies the first and second pillar. Finally, the third pillar. Did adverse employment action take place within 90 days of the protected activity? In this case, Ms. Evans reported the suspected fraud.