Whistleblower Retaliation Lawyer in New York
Under New York law, your employer can’t retaliate against you for reporting to a supervisor something you reasonably believe breaks a law, rule or regulation, or for objecting to it or refusing to take part.
If you were fired, demoted or threatened after reporting something wrong at work in New York, we can help you. You did nothing wrong.
If what happened is affecting your sleep or your health, a counselor or your doctor can help, whatever happens with any claim.
1990
New York bar
2006
Supreme Court bar
All four
NY federal districts
1998
Thurgood Marshall Award, NYC Bar
How Long Do You Have to File a Retaliation Claim?
For whistleblower retaliation claims, the deadline depends on which law applies, and several may apply to the same situation.
two years from the retaliatory action under Section 740
two years from the retaliatory action under Section 741, for health care workers
three years from the retaliation under the federal False Claims Act
Under Section 740, each retaliatory action, such as a demotion that follows an earlier threat, can start its own two-year clock.
There are strict time limits, and acting early protects your rights. We will check every deadline that applies to you in the consultation, including those under New York’s False Claims Act and for public employees.
Who Does New York's Whistleblower Law Protect?
Section 740, New York’s main whistleblower law, protects former employees and certain independent contractors as well as current employees. Under Section 740, you generally don’t have to prove that your employer actually broke the law. It may be enough that you reasonably believed its conduct violated a law, rule or regulation.
Under Section 740, you are protected even when spotting such problems is part of your job.
Which Whistleblower Law Protects You?
Section 740 covers employers with one or more employees, and other laws can add protection depending on where you work and what you reported.
You Reported a Violation of Law or a Danger at Work
Under Section 740, the protection covers a report about conduct you reasonably believe breaks a law, rule or regulation, or poses a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.
If you take your report to a public body, such as a government agency, a court, a legislator or the police, Section 740 generally requires you first to bring it to a supervisor and give your employer a reasonable chance to fix it. You don’t need to do that first in any of these situations:
- there is an imminent and serious danger to public health or safety
- you reasonably believe that telling a supervisor would lead to evidence being destroyed or the conduct being hidden
- the conduct could reasonably be expected to endanger the welfare of a minor
- you reasonably believe that telling a supervisor would lead to physical harm to you or someone else
- you reasonably believe the supervisor already knows about the conduct and will not correct it
That step doesn’t apply when you report only to a supervisor, or when you object to the conduct or refuse to take part.
You Raised Patient Care or Safety in Healthcare
Section 741 protects you if you perform health care services for a covered health care employer, such as a health care facility licensed under New York’s Public Health Law. It covers reporting, objecting to or refusing to take part in practices you reasonably believe, in good faith, break the law in a way that may present:
- a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety
- a significant threat to the health of a specific patient
- an unsafe workplace, a risk to employee safety or a significant threat to the health of a specific employee
Under Section 741, you generally must first bring the problem to a supervisor and give your employer a reasonable chance to fix it. When you report it, you can skip that step only if there is an imminent threat to public health or safety, or to a specific patient or health care employee, and you reasonably believe in good faith that telling a supervisor would not fix it.
You Reported Fraud on a Government Program
If you are an employee, contractor or agent and you are punished for lawful efforts to stop fraud on the federal government, or for lawful acts in a False Claims Act case, federal law entitles you to all relief needed to make you whole. New York’s False Claims Act gives the same protection to current and former employees, contractors and agents who try to stop false claims to the State or a local government.
You Work for the Government
If you work for a New York public employer, Section 75-b protects you when you tell a government body about a violation of law that creates a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or about official conduct you reasonably believe breaks a law, rule or regulation.
Under Section 75-b, if you face dismissal or other discipline under a union contract’s arbitration or disciplinary procedure, under the Civil Service Law, or under any other state or local law, the retaliation is raised there, before the arbitrator or hearing officer. You can raise it as a defense if you reasonably believe the discipline would not have happened but for your protected report. You can also raise it as a claim before the arbitrator if your union contract bars adverse personnel actions and has binding arbitration for disputes about them. If neither applies to you, you can bring a court case.
Not sure which law fits what happened to you? We work it out with you in a free, confidential consultation.
What Does Retaliation Look Like If You Weren't Fired?
Under Section 740, retaliation can include firing, demotion, suspension and threats, and actions that damage a former employee’s current or future employment.
What If Your Employer Gives Another Reason?
Your employer may say it acted for a different reason, such as performance, restructuring or a broken policy.
Picture a medical biller with three years of good reviews. She tells her manager that visits are being billed that never happened. Two weeks later she is put on a performance plan, and a month after that she is let go for “performance”.
Under Sections 740 and 741, it is a defense for your employer that it acted on grounds other than your protected report or objection. In a case like that, the employer’s defense turns on whether it acted on grounds other than her report.
What Can a Whistleblower Retaliation Claim Recover?
Under Section 740
Under Section 740, successful whistleblowers may recover lost compensation, front pay, attorneys’ fees and, in appropriate cases, punitive damages. A court can also order your job back instead of front pay, and restore your benefits and seniority. Punitive damages are available only if the violation was willful, malicious or wanton.
A risk to know
If a court finds a Section 740 case had no basis in law or in fact, it can order the employee to pay the employer’s attorney’s fees and costs.
Under the False Claims Acts
Under the federal and New York False Claims Acts, the relief includes two times your back pay, plus interest, along with reinstatement and your litigation costs and attorney’s fees.
What Should You Do Now, and What Should You Avoid?
Don’t destroy anything, and don’t delete anything. Do not start downloading company data. Preserve what you already lawfully possess, identify where other evidence sits, and leave it there for a lawyer to analyze and advise on.
But don’t start investigating the company yourself. Don’t access files you ordinarily wouldn’t access, download entire folders, take privileged communications, or copy large numbers of patient records.
Before resigning, it is usually wise to speak with an employment lawyer about how leaving could affect your claims and damages. Don’t sign a severance agreement or release until a lawyer has reviewed it, and don’t post about what happened in public.
Who Do We Represent in Whistleblower Retaliation Cases?
In New York, we represent people punished for reporting or opposing violations of law, or a danger to public health, safety or a patient. We represent people punished for opposing false claims to Medicare, Medicaid or another government program, and public employees in retaliation cases.
Why The Howley Law Firm
We represent individuals, never employers, in whistleblower retaliation cases across New York.
John Howley spent nearly two decades at Kaye Scholer LLP defending Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Citibank, Texaco and Sony, and today we represent whistleblowers against companies like them. We know the reasons employers give after a report, such as performance, restructuring or a broken policy. We also know how a file gets built to support them. We set that file beside what your record said before you reported.
John Howley has taught Ethical Issues in Whistleblower Litigation, a Lawline course for other lawyers.
If we take your case, it is not passed off to a paralegal or a junior lawyer. You may also want things money does not cover, such as a fair reference, and we negotiate for those too.
When Might Retaliation Law Not Protect You?
If the law doesn’t reach what happened to you, or the deadline has run, you will hear that from us first.
Simply telling your boss that something is unfair, unethical, or against company policy may not be enough. Your complaint should communicate the conduct you believe is unlawful or dangerous and why. What you actually said, whom you told, and what happened afterward can determine whether an internal complaint qualifies as protected whistleblowing.
Which Cases Don't We Take?
We don’t take SEC, IRS, CFTC or anti-money-laundering reward cases, medical abuse claims against a doctor or hospital, or professional license defense. If your matter is one we don’t take, we will say so and try to point you to a lawyer who handles it.
Does Reporting Only to Your Boss Count as Whistleblowing?
You do not have to report misconduct to the government to be protected by New York’s whistleblower law. Reporting the problem only to your supervisor can be protected.
Is This a Reward Case Too?
If what you reported was fraud on Medicare, Medicaid or another government healthcare program, we look at a reward case alongside the retaliation claim. We represent individuals, never employers, in healthcare fraud reward cases in federal courts anywhere in the United States.
What Should You Do If You Still Work There?
Keep doing your job, stay out of files you would not normally use, and talk to us about what to report next and to whom.
Preserve the evidence you already have, but speak with an employment lawyer before copying, downloading, or removing confidential company records.
Talk to The Howley Law Firm About Retaliation
You don’t need to have decided anything before you call.
Working out what you reported, to whom and when is where the consultation starts. Tell us about every change since you reported, such as your pay, duties, shifts, meetings or reviews.
Your first conversation is a free, confidential consultation with a lawyer at the firm, not an intake person. We take most cases on a contingency fee and advance the costs. In those cases, there is no fee unless there is a recovery.