Do I have legal grounds for emotional distress and damages?

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Do I have legal grounds for emotional distress and damages?

I was offered and I accepted a promotion. Less than 2 days later the position
was retracted. The timing affected my personal life and I will never get back
what I lost emotionally.

Asked on June 26, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, North Carolina

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

No, you have no legal grounds for a legal claim unless there was a written employment contract for a definite period of time (e.g. one year) which promised you this promotion and which was violated. In the absence of a written employment contract, all employment in this country is "employment at will": an employer is free to rescind job or promotion offers, to demote employees or transfer them, to decide who to hire or promote, to terminate employees, etc. Without a contract, you have no right to a job, and your employer has free rein to decide at will (and to change its mind) about what job you have.
Since they had the legal right to rescind the offer, you cannot sue them for doing so: there is no lawsuit when someone does what they legally may do.
Furthermore, even if there had been a written employment contract, while you could in that case sue for "breach of contract" to get the job or at least to get additional money (e.g. a raise you would have gotten), there is NO recovery for emotional distress in breach of contract cases: the law does not give you any compensation for your emotional distress or impact on your personal life.


IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.

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