What Is a Right-to-Sue Letter - and What Does It Start?

Before a California worker can sue for discrimination, harassment, or retaliation under FEHA, one procedural step stands in the way: filing with the Civil Rights Department and obtaining a right-to-sue notice. Workers hear the name and imagine an evaluation - some agency deciding their case has merit. It isn't that. It is an exhaustion requirement: proof you knocked on the agency's door before heading to court. Understanding what it is - and the clock it starts - keeps strong cases from dying on procedure.

The Two Ways Through the CRD

Path one: file a complaint and ask the agency to investigate. CRD can mediate, prosecute, or close the file; investigations take time, and you keep the option of requesting your notice along the way. Path two - what most represented workers do: request an immediate right-to-sue notice, skip the agency investigation entirely, and proceed straight to court with counsel. The numbers show how standard this is: CRD issued 16,924 immediate right-to-sue notices in employment cases in 2024. Neither path judges your case; they are procedural doors, and which one fits depends on whether you have a lawyer ready to litigate.

The Clock It Starts - the Part That Kills Cases

The notice is not just permission; it is a deadline. From its date, you have ONE YEAR to file your lawsuit. Workers who request a notice on their own, then sit on it while deciding what to do, burn their own case - we have seen strong claims arrive at a consultation with weeks left on a clock the worker didn't know was running. The sequence that protects you: lawyer first, notice second. A lawyer requests the notice when the case is ready to move, not before.

What It Is Not

It is not a merits finding - courts give it no evidentiary weight. It is not required before talking to a lawyer, reporting internally, or negotiating. It is not the federal step - the EEOC has its own charge process (300-day deadline in California) and its own notice with a much shorter 90-day suit window; dual-filing coordinates the two. And it is not a substitute for the underlying deadline: you still must file with CRD within three years of the violation for the notice to issue at all.

Where It Fits in the Whole Path

Document and preserve. Consult counsel - free and privileged. File with CRD (three-year window). Obtain the right-to-sue notice at the strategic moment. File suit in superior court within one year. Then discovery, mediation, resolution - the arc mapped in how long a discrimination lawsuit takes. If you already HAVE a notice in hand, check its date now and call the same week: 1-800-371-3088. The year moves faster than anyone expects.