Rachel Bethel Dallas
Trial Attorney
Domestic violence (“DV”) does not confine itself to a victim’s home. DV hunts survivors down to factory floors, hospital units, classrooms, and office desks.
Several states have recognized the intimate link between a survivor’s physical safety and a survivor’s financial security.
Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Ellie Johnston
For many Dallas employees, December feels like the worst time to deal with a work problem. Everyone is juggling holiday travel, office potlucks, and year-end deadlines, and it’s extremely tempting to tell yourself, “I’ll deal with that in January.” We hear this all the time. Employees want to rock around the Christmas tree, not rock the boat, and employers often count on that hesitation. Unfortunately, your workplace rights don’t take a holiday break, no matter how much we wish the law would let us hit “pause” until after New Year’s.
The truth is that waiting can have real consequences. Employment laws run on strict timelines, evidence can disappear quickly, and employers make major decisions in December that can shape your case long before the new year ever arrives. As cozy as it sounds to postpone everything until January, that delay can close doors you didn’t even know were closing.
Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Cassidy Monska
If you’re experiencing discrimination or harassment at work, your first instinct may be to tell someone, but how you report it can make a significant difference in how your complaint is handled and whether you’re protected under the law.
Why Reporting Is Essential
Dallas Employment Trail Lawyer Ellie Johnston
October is here—pumpkins on porches, costumes in the stores, and a chill in the air. But for many Texas employees, the real scare isn’t haunted houses or ghost stories. It’s the fear of speaking up at work. When employees exercise their rights—whether requesting a disability accommodation or reporting unfair treatment—they too often face retaliation. And that’s more frightening than anything you’ll find in a corn maze.
In this post, we’ll look at how disability rights and workplace retaliation intersect, what protections the law gives Texas employees, and what steps you can take if your employer crosses the line.
Rachel Bethel – Trial Attorney
Workplace issues can start subtly: a passive-aggressive comment, a suspicious change in workload, or a shift in how management treats you. Many employees hope these problems will work themselves out or go away eventually. However, waiting too long to get legal guidance can make things worse & potentially limit your options later on.
Whether you’re facing discrimination, retaliation, or a hostile work environment, speaking with an employment attorney early in the process can be one of the smartest moves you make.
Dallas Employment Trail Lawyer Ellie Johnston
Every employee deserves a safe workplace. Whether you work in construction, health care, retail, or an office, your employer has a legal duty to provide an environment free from known hazards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created to enforce these rules and protect employees when companies cut corners. But too often, workers hesitate to speak up because they fear retaliation.
The truth is that retaliation is common—and it’s illegal. Workers who raise safety concerns, request inspections, or file OSHA complaints are protected by federal law. Retaliation can take many forms: sudden termination, reduced hours, demotion, harassment, or even blacklisting that makes it harder to find work in the future. These actions are meant to intimidate, but OSHA’s whistleblower provisions exist precisely to stop employers from silencing their workers.
Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Deontae Wherry
Picture this: you are at work when someone hands you a subpoena. You did not ask for it, and maybe you do not even want to be involved, but now you are legally required to show up in court or provide documents. You want to do the right thing, so you comply with the subpoena. But when you get back to work, your boss is not happy. Maybe he/she cut your hours, your responsibilities change, or, worst of all, he/she terminates your job.
If that sounds unfair, that’s because it is. And, in Texas, it is also illegal.
Just at the start of September 2025, two different Texas public universities have fired professors as a result of their speech. Texas State University explicitly fired Professor Thomas Alter because of a speech he gave at a conference of socialists, and Texas A&M University fired Professor Melissa McCoul after a student, in a controversial viral video, confronted her about what she was supposedly teaching about gender in her classroom. While both of these events just happened and it is hard to say what might eventually become of these cases, they each appear to set up a possible confrontation between the universities and their professors’ regarding free speech rights.
And there have been many such confrontations in recent years. In July and August 2025, for instance, the Third Circuit and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeals each issued decisions addressing whether schools and universities could legally fire some employees over their (politically right wing) speech. The point of this article isn’t to dissect these any of those cases—much less the merits of the underlying speech—but to discuss what legal standard courts in the Fifth Circuit (which includes Texas) might apply should disputes over these sorts of terminations go forward.
The First Amendment prevents federal and state governments from infringing on the rights of people to engage in free speech, but that is not an absolute right. Nonetheless, public employees are protected against termination for engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. The standard for this has been set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in a number of cases. To prove that their speech was protected, the public employee must show that they spoke (1) as a citizen (2) on a matter of public concern, and that (3) the public employer did not otherwise have an adequate justification for treating the public employee differently than any other member of the public saying the same thing.
Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Cassidy Monska
Retaliation is one of the most frequently alleged forms of workplace misconduct in Texas. Although the law protects employees who assert their rights, many still face adverse consequences after reporting discrimination, requesting accommodations, or participating in investigations. Unfortunately, retaliation can be subtle, delayed, or disguised as ordinary business decisions.
What Is Workplace Retaliation?
Dallas Employment Trial Lawyer Deontae Wherry
In the dynamic world of business, having the right legal team can mean the difference between success and setbacks. When it comes to protecting your interests and navigating complex legal challenges, nothing beats the expertise and specialization of board-certified employment attorneys. Here’s why investing in a board-certified employment attorney is advantageous for you:
Dallas Employment Lawyer Blog