Wrongful Termination Facts

After 14 years at Chipotle, manager Jeanette Ortiz filed a workers' compensation claim for carpal tunnel syndrome. Within months, she was accused of stealing $626 from the safe - caught on video, they said. When she asked to see the footage, Chipotle told her it had been destroyed. A jury awarded her $7.97 million.

Maria Gatchalian spent 30 years as a NICU nurse at Kaiser Permanente, repeatedly reporting unsafe staffing and patient safety failures. In 2019, Kaiser fired her - citing a photo of her with bare feet resting on an incubator during a break. A jury found the photo was a pretext. The real reason was the reports. They awarded her $41.49 million.

After 31 years at Liberty Mutual, senior case manager Joy Slagel was fired the day she returned from medical leave - over a paperwork mix-up on a Disney social media investigation. A Los Angeles jury awarded her $103 million in December 2025, the largest age discrimination verdict in US history. The jury found Liberty Mutual had acted with "malice or oppression."

Nancy Valla, Dignity Health's Chief Nursing Officer, reported expired anesthesia machines, outdated defibrillators, and unsterilized surgical instruments at her hospital. Her reward: being replaced while on medical leave. A California jury awarded her $27.5 million.