Public employees enjoy the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which provides that no state may deprive a person of property without due process of law. A public employee terminated from his or her position may bring suit under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. That statute allows a successful plaintiff to collect attorney fees as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

Whether a public employee has a property interest in continued employment is a matter of state law rather than federal law. A property interest may be created by a state statute providing, for example, that certain employees may only be terminated for good cause. It may also arise from local ordinances, rules propagated by the employing authority, an employee manual, or a collective bargaining agreement.

If a court determines that the complaining employee had a property interest in continued public employment, the next inquiry is whether he or she was deprived of that interest. A deprivation need not be a dismissal, but could include suspension, demotion, transfer at reduced pay, or other disciplinary action.

Once the first two inquiries are resolved in the employee’s favor, a balancing test is used to determine what process was legally due the employee. The factors to be weighed include the private interest affected by the official action; the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedure used; the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and the government’s interest, including the government function involved and the economic or administrative burdens which additional procedures would require. As a general principle, parties are entitled to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner before a deprivation is complete.

If you would like more information on this or other employment law matters, contact Attorney John Alexander (johna@ranspell.com) .