Jennifer A. Reisch
Jennifer A. Reisch
making rights real: Effectively representing immigrants
Protecting the rights of immigrant clients in employment and personal injury cases
A colleague refers a potential client to you named Ms. R. Ms. R. is a Mexican national who was employed as a server in
a chain restaurant. During her employment, Ms. R’s supervisor repeatedly made humiliating and sexually explicit comments to her and asked her for sexual favors, which she refused. Eventually, he cornered her in a supply closet and touched her against her will. After she complained to management, they promised they would look into the matter; but no action was taken. In fact, Ms. R. felt like the situation only got worse. Then, a few weeks after she complained, Ms. R. slipped and fell in the kitchen, which did not have any rubber mats, while taking some dishes to be washed. She hurt her back, and had to seek medical attention. Within days of her accident, Ms. R.’s hours were reduced; she went from working five to only two shifts per week. Eventually, Ms. R. resigned because of the intolerable working conditions. Ms. R. is a native Spanish-speaker; she can understand some spoken English, but cannot read it very well.
Being the trained issue-spotters that
we are, many of us will have certain pre- dictable reactions to the story of Ms. R. For example, we will begin, almost auto- matically, to identify and catalog her potential legal claims. Then we will start to mentally generate the list of questions that we would ask at the next (or first) interview, such as: How long was she employed? How much did she make? How long ago did she quit? Are restau-
96— The Advocate Magazine APRIL 2011
rant kitchens legally required to have rub- ber mats? And then we remember that Ms. R. is a “Mexican national.” So she is an immigrant. This realization may spark a new round of internal inquiries, such as: What if she is undocumented1
– does that
matter for her case? How will the issue of her immigration status play out during lit- igation and at trial? If it turns out that she is undocumented, am I prepared to pro- tect Ms. R. from retaliation and invasive
discovery? If you lack clear answers to any of these questions, then this article is for you.
I am not an immigration attorney,
but since my firm specializes in represent- ing immigrant workers in wage and hour, discrimination, and other employment- related civil rights matters, sometimes people – especially non-lawyers – mistake me for one. Given this state’s cultural and racial diversity – nearly 27 percent of
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