Discrimination lawyer

A huge swathe of the law is now devoted to ensuring equality so if you feel you have been treated unfairly on the basis of your age, gender, race, religion, belief, disability or sexuality then it is well worth speaking to a discrimination lawyer to see if you have the right to recourse.

What type of work will a discrimination lawyer handle?

An easy, but non-foolproof way, of understanding whether a discrimination lawyer can help you is by analysing whether your treatment has been less favourable than that of someone else in the same situation and what non-relevant factor that differentiates you may have been taken into account.

The most common type of work a discrimination lawyer will handle relates to the workplace. However, discrimination legislation covers a wide range of circumstances and you could consult a discrimination lawyer regarding your treatment in health care or social care, housing, education, services and transport.

A discrimination lawyer can assist in cases of direct discrimination, indirect discrimination or harassment. In the case of indirect discrimination, a discrimination lawyer will represent someone who has been unable to meet a requirement that is irrelevent to the situation and are consequently put at a disadvantage. For harassment a discrimination lawyer will most commonly represent someone who has experienced verbal or physical abuse or other unsolicited physical contact.

How can a discrimination lawyer help?

By going to an employment tribunal or to court, for any non-employment based discrimination, your discrimination lawyer could win compensation for loss of earnings, an award for injured feelings and an order preventing such a situation arising again.

It is helpful to come well prepared to the first meeting with your discrimination lawyer and doing so could save you money by reducing the billable hours spent on your case. To assist your discrimination lawyer you should provide correspondence relating to the matter, copies of relevant documents such as your employer's company policy and your employment contract, a chronology of events and evidence of any loss of earnings.

In an employment case, you must also raise a grievance before bringing a claim so doing so before consulting a discrimination lawyer could speed matters up.

As is always the case when taking legal advice, it is important to consult a discrimination lawyer fast. For an employment case, your discrimination lawyer must bring your claim within the time limit, which is usually 3 months.

NB: None of this information should be construed as legal advice.