Has Another Employee Committed a Similar Offense and Received Different Discipline?
Once you have examined the issue of whether any state law claim exists, you must then look to federal law to see if a potential claim exists. In order to establish a federal claim of discrimination, you must have either direct evidence of discrimination or circumstantial evidence; i.e., be able to prove that other similarly situated employees outside the protected category committed a similar offense and were not terminated or received lighter discipline. Asserting a federal claim of discrimination makes your case removable to federal court. Personally, I now find myself in federal court on just about every case I have because Mississippi is an employment-at-will state and the most viable claims usually are federal question claims. I file most of my clients’ complaints in state court; but, since they contain federal question claims of which the state court has concurrent jurisdiction, I wind up in federal court due to removal of the federal question claims. Actually, federal court can
