Violation of Civil Rights

Answer:

Civil rights has been an area of law, particularly in today’s society, that has really been pushed to the forefront of litigation. We get a number of calls here in our office about civil rights that have been violated. They have a vast spectrum of violations— everything from workplace discrimination and harassment to being abused by a police officer. That’s a civil rights matter. Folks in prison institutions not being cared for properly, not being given adequate medical care or being harassed by prison guards – all of those are civil rights issues. There’s often the question of, “Well, what can I do?” There are a number of things that have to be done in a civil rights case and a number of things that must be looked at in a civil rights case. The number of civil rights violations that are possible are very, very, very vast. You have to understand this principle, that civil rights are designed to protect you from government actors – police officers, counties, police departments, courts, prisons, workers. They’re designed to protect certain things and some civil entities, like employers and the rights that you’re protected from civilly as is relates to them. What do you do? One that’s a little more obvious is, if I’m on the side of the road and I feel like a police officer has violated my rights – we see this a lot, as it’s been high in our news coverage and what not – the worst thing you can do is sit there and argue and go back and forth with the police officer. Don’t do it. That’s what lawsuits are for. Just collect your evidence, collect your information, and contact a competent lawyer. Let a lawyer deal with it. You do have certain rights, and the police are not above the law. The best thing we can tell folks to do is comply with the police officer’s lawful orders. If they’re giving you an unlawful order, and it’s going to place your life in danger, you have an obligation to get home safe to your family, your friends and your loved ones, so don’t challenge the police officer’s unlawful orders. Document them, and then file a lawsuit against them. There are certain steps that need to be taken to file a lawsuit, depending on whether it’s municipality or a state agency or a federal agency. There’s a lot of law that has to be considered, so as soon as it happens, what you must do is immediately – don’t wait a week or two; don’t wait two or three days – contact a lawyer immediately. The clock immediately starts ticking, concerning the statute of limitations and how you must file a suit and what things must be done prior to even filing a lawsuit in court. You want to contact a competent attorney very quickly. Whether it’s in the workplace, whether it’s by a police officer, a prison, a state hospital – it doesn’t matter – call a competent lawyer immediately and let them start working through the facts of your case to determine what rights have been violated and what needs to be done.