Few events are as traumatic, in both personal and corporate terms, as layoffs. This project explores how workers view the causes of their job loss and how they decide whether they have suffered wrongful or discriminatory treatment. The project expands the study of decisions about suing by looking at claiming decisions with respect to past employers. The study will test a number of theories of litigation behavior, focusing particularly on how feelings of fair or unfair treatment by the former employer affects the decision to make a wrongful termination claim. By helping us to understand the psychological and social processes involved in claiming decisions, the study will contribute to our understanding of how everyday notions of fair treatment affect the movement of cases into the legal system. This collaborative study will include interviews of 1075 recently fired or laid-off workers recruited at state unemployment offices. The interviews will explore a variety of factors thought to contribute to the decision to sue, including pre-termination treatment, financial burdens of unemployment, awareness of claiming options, and feelings of discrimination. Follow-up interviews with some of the workers will be used to determine who actually initiated wrongful termination claims.
