How will I present my discrimination case to an attorney?

A great way is to create a chronology of events, meaning a timeline so that the attorney can at a glance see what happened in order of what occurred. Have any documents that you believe are relevant to the issue. Attorneys are usually fast readers and can gather a lot from documents faster than interviewing. Know the specific things that you believe supports your belief that there has been discrimination. What words were spoken, what conduct occurred, who were witnesses to the acts. Know how you have been damaged. Have you suffered any financial loss, and how much. Have you been injured in other ways? Do not walk in and tell the attorney that you have a great case. Do not walk in and tell the attorney how you think the case should be handled. Some discrimination cases are hard to prove. Others are easier. Some are so hard to prove that an attorney will simply say no to the opportunity to take the case. Persevere. Continue to look for attorneys. One attorney's no thank you is another attorney's great case. We all look at risk differently depending on many factors. Do not take no for an answer on the first several attempts. If this is an employment discrimination case, look at www.cela.org, which is the homepage for the California Employment Lawyers Association, and many of the attorneys listed on the membership pages of that organization are very competent at discrimination litigation. Good luck to you.

Mr. Pedersen has given you some excellent guidance. If you are having trouble finding an attorney for your case, there are several possibilities: -- you are not looking in the right place for the right kind of attorney; -- your case does not have as much value as you think; or -- you are not presenting your case in a way that makes sense to the attorneys. Employment attorneys want certain information right up front: the name of the defendant, the name of the employee; if the employee was fired (or denied reasonable accommodation, or laid off, or whatever the issue is, in five words or less); the date this happened; the reason the employer gave for whatever happened; how long the employee worked for the defendant; what job the employee did; how much the employee made; and any deadline.