The numbers at a glance
- 16,924 right to sue notices CRD issued in 2024, the step most Californians take before a wrongful termination lawsuit
- 36% growth in right to sue notices from 2022 to 2024
- 11,837 of the 2024 right to sue complaints alleged retaliation for reporting or resisting discrimination
- 14,430 alleged disability, the most common basis behind a termination claim
- 299,534 unlimited civil cases filed in California superior courts in fiscal 2024 to 2025, the category employment lawsuits fall into
California is an at will state, so a firing is only wrongful when the reason is unlawful: discrimination, retaliation, a protected leave, a complaint, a refusal to break the law, or a breach of contract. No agency counts firings. What the state does count is right to sue notices, which nearly every represented worker requests before filing a lawsuit over a termination, and the bases those complaints allege. That is the closest official measure of wrongful termination claims in California, and it is below.
Right to sue notices by year
| Year | Right to sue notices | Intake forms | Right to sue share of intakes | Investigations opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 16,924 | 33,505 | 50.5% | 6,089 |
| 2023 | 14,982 | 29,877 | 50.1% | 5,765 |
| 2022 | 12,457 | 25,961 | 48.0% | 4,813 |
Half of everything CRD receives is a request for a right to sue notice, and that half grew 36 percent in two years while investigations grew 27 percent. The right to sue is the lawsuit track. Its growth is the growth of employment litigation in California.
What the termination complaints allege
A wrongful termination complaint lists the unlawful reason. The bases below are the ones most often behind a firing in the 2024 right to sue complaints.
| Basis | 2024 right to sue complaints | Share of all right to sue complaints |
|---|---|---|
| Disability | 14,430 | 85.3% |
| Reported or resisted discrimination | 11,837 | 69.9% |
| Sex or gender | 9,131 | 54.0% |
| CFRA | 8,340 | 49.3% |
| Requested disability accommodation | 8,288 | 49.0% |
| Race | 7,655 | 45.2% |
| Sexual harassment, hostile environment | 6,787 | 40.1% |
| Age | 5,911 | 34.9% |
| Medical condition | 5,700 | 33.7% |
| Color | 5,140 | 30.4% |
| Association | 4,431 | 26.2% |
| National origin | 4,053 | 23.9% |
Two of the top five are leave and accommodation. Being fired at the end of a medical leave, or after asking for one, is the single most common wrongful termination story in California files. Retaliation is second, and it is often the strongest claim in the case.
From our files
A bank teller in California was raped by her branch manager after an after hours gathering that started at work. The bank said the assault happened outside the scope of employment and was not its problem, then fired the manager. Six months later it cut her hours and let her go. The firm framed the case as retaliation for reporting what happened to her, and the bank settled for a substantial confidential amount.
A note on how to read the CRD figures. The Civil Rights Department publishes its numbers by calendar year, and it counts a complaint under every basis it lists, so the basis rows add up to more than the number of complaints. Most California workers who go to court first ask CRD for an immediate right to sue notice rather than an investigation, so the right to sue table is the closer measure of how many people are actually pursuing a claim.
The courts
Employment cases are filed as unlimited civil cases in the superior courts. The Judicial Council reported 299,534 unlimited civil filings statewide in fiscal 2024 to 2025, out of over 5.3 million filings of all kinds. The council does not break out employment cases, and many wrongful termination claims are resolved in arbitration or settled before filing, so no court statistic counts them.
What these numbers mean if it happened to you
- At will means the employer does not need a good reason. It does not mean any reason is lawful. The question is always why.
- The bases that most often make a firing unlawful in California are disability and medical leave, retaliation for a complaint, sex and pregnancy, race and age.
- Wrongful termination in violation of public policy, the claim for firings over refusing to break the law or reporting violations, has a two year deadline, shorter than the three years for CRD.
- Ask for your personnel file and payroll records in writing. California requires the employer to produce them, and the file often contains the reason.
Deadlines that decide these cases
A California worker has three years from the last act of harassment or discrimination to file with the Civil Rights Department, and one year after a right to sue notice to file in court. The federal deadline is much shorter, 300 days to file a charge with the EEOC. The counts on this page only include people who filed inside those windows. Everyone who waited too long is missing from every table here.
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Sources
The figures on this page were taken from the following publications, as released by the agencies. Percentages, changes, sums and rates per 100,000 workers are our own arithmetic from those figures.
- California Civil Rights Department, 2024 Annual Report (complaint tables and county appendix), calcivilrights.ca.gov
- California Civil Rights Department, 2023 Annual Report, calcivilrights.ca.gov
- California Civil Rights Department, 2022 Annual Report, calcivilrights.ca.gov
- Judicial Council of California, 2026 Court Statistics Report, www.courts.ca.gov
Frequently asked questions
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Attorney advertising. The figures on this page come from the public sources listed above and are reproduced or computed as described. They are provided for general information and do not constitute legal advice, nor does reading this page create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different. If you believe your rights were violated, consult a California employment attorney promptly, filing deadlines apply.