Orlando Workplace
Discrimination Lawyers

Workplace discrimination claims are governed by an overlapping set of state and federal statutes, and the practical differences between them — filing deadlines above all — often decide whether a claim can be brought at all. King Law represents employees in Orlando and throughout Central Florida in discrimination and harassment claims under both frameworks.

The Florida Civil Rights Act, codified at Fla. Stat. ch. 760, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, handicap, and marital status, and applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin at the federal level, and also generally applies to employers with 15 or more employees. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act supply parallel federal protection for age and disability claims specifically, each with employer-size thresholds of their own.

Two Filing Deadlines, Not One

This is the detail that most often determines whether a viable claim survives. A Florida Civil Rights Act claim generally must be filed as a charge with the Florida Commission on Human Relations within 365 days of the last discriminatory act. A Title VII claim generally must be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 300 days, because Florida is a deferral state with its own fair employment practices agency.

These periods run from the discriminatory act itself, not from when the employee finally decided to act, and continuing violations are analysed carefully rather than assumed. A charge filed with one agency is typically cross-filed with the other under a work-sharing agreement, but the underlying deadlines do not extend each other, and a claim that misses both windows generally cannot proceed under either statute regardless of its merit.

After a charge is filed and investigated, the agency issues a determination and, ultimately, a notice of the right to sue in court. A lawsuit generally cannot be filed before that administrative process runs its course. This exhaustion requirement is a genuine procedural gate, not a formality, and it means the clock on a discrimination claim starts running immediately — often before the affected employee has located a lawyer.

What Counts as Discrimination

Disparate treatment is the most familiar category: being treated less favourably than similarly situated coworkers because of a protected characteristic, in hiring, firing, pay, promotion, discipline or job assignment. Disparate impact addresses a facially neutral policy that has a disproportionate adverse effect on a protected group without adequate business justification, which is a more technical and evidence-intensive theory.

Harassment is a related but separate claim. A hostile work environment exists where unwelcome conduct based on a protected characteristic is severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of employment. A single crude comment rarely meets that bar on its own; a pattern of conduct, or one sufficiently severe incident, can. Where a supervisor’s harassment results in a tangible employment action such as termination or demotion, the employer’s liability analysis changes and is generally more direct.

Failure to accommodate is its own category under the ADA and analogous Florida law, covering an employer’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation for a qualified employee’s disability, absent undue hardship to the employer. Pregnancy discrimination is addressed both as sex discrimination and under specific pregnancy-related protections, including accommodation obligations that have expanded in recent years.

How These Cases Are Actually Proven

Direct evidence of discriminatory intent — an explicit discriminatory statement tied to the adverse action — is rare. Most cases instead proceed under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework: the employee establishes a basic case of discrimination, the employer offers a legitimate non-discriminatory reason, and the employee then has the opportunity to show that reason is pretextual, meaning it is not the real explanation.

Pretext is typically shown through inconsistent explanations given at different times, deviation from the employer’s own stated policies, more favourable treatment of comparators outside the protected class in similar circumstances, and timing that connects the adverse action to a discriminatory motive rather than the stated reason.

Comparator evidence is often central: identifying coworkers who were similarly situated but treated better, and who did not share the protected characteristic at issue. Performance reviews, disciplinary records, emails and witness accounts from coworkers who observed the conduct all factor into building this kind of record.

Reporting Internally Before Filing a Charge

Most employers maintain internal complaint procedures through HR, and using them, in writing, creates a documented record of what was reported and when — which matters both for the discrimination claim itself and for any later retaliation claim if the employee is disciplined or terminated after complaining. It generally does not substitute for filing a timely charge with FCHR or the EEOC, and it does not pause those external deadlines.

Save copies of any complaint you submit, any response you receive, and any changes in your treatment at work following the complaint. This documentation is frequently the backbone of the case, particularly where retaliation follows a report of discrimination or harassment.