Wrongful Termination for Jury Service, Voting, or Refusing to Violate DC Law: A Wrongful Termination Attorney in DC Explains the Public Policy Exception

You get a jury summons and your boss tells you flat out that taking the day off “isn’t going to work for the team.” You ask for two hours to vote on Election Day and your manager rolls his eyes. You’re told to fudge a safety log, you push back, and a week later you’re being walked out the door. Talk to a wrongful termination attorney in DC about any of these and you’ll hear the same phrase come up: the public policy exception. It’s one of the older corners of DC employment law, and one of the most misunderstood by the workers it was built to protect.

DC, like most of the country, follows the at-will rule. Your employer can fire you for almost any reason, or no reason at all. The word “almost” is doing a lot of work. Some firings are off-limits because letting them happen would force employees to choose between their job and following the law, doing their civic duty, or refusing to break the rules. That’s the public policy exception in plain English.

Jury Duty: One of the Clearest Lines There Is

If you’re summoned for jury service in DC, your employer can’t fire you, threaten to fire you, or punish you for showing up. DC Code § 11-1913 spells this out, and it covers both grand juries and petit juries, whether you’re picked for a panel or stuck in the jury room waiting to be called.

Employers aren’t required to pay you for the time, but they can’t push you out for it either. Softer forms of retaliation count too: a sudden cut in hours when you get back, a “demotion” framed as restructuring, being passed over for assignments you’d normally handle. If any of that lines up with a recent jury summons, the timing alone is worth taking seriously.

Voting: Two Hours of Paid Leave You’re Entitled To

DC’s Leave to Vote Amendment Act gives most employees in the District up to two hours of paid leave to vote in DC public elections. You can request the time in advance, and your employer can pick when during the workday you take it, but they can’t deny it outright and they can’t punish you for using it.

That protection runs alongside the broader public policy rule. Firing someone for taking the voting time the law provides, for the way they voted, or for political activity tied to a candidate or party is the kind of decision DC courts have been willing to look at hard. The DC Human Rights Act adds another layer by treating political affiliation as a protected category, which most states don’t do.

Refusing to Break the Law

This is the heart of the public policy exception. If your employer asks you to do something illegal, you refuse, and you get fired for refusing, that’s a wrongful termination claim under DC common law. The DC Court of Appeals laid this down in Adams v. George W. Cochran & Co., recognizing that workers shouldn’t have to choose between their paycheck and breaking the law.

The kinds of refusals that come up in real cases include:

• Falsifying records, billing entries, or safety reports
• Misclassifying workers or shaving hours off a timecard
• Ignoring environmental, health, or safety violations
• Participating in fraud, kickbacks, or anything that puts you on the hook personally
• Discriminating against a coworker on a boss’s instructions

Reporting any of these, instead of just refusing, can layer a retaliation claim on top of the public policy claim. DC’s Whistleblower Protection Act covers government workers and certain contractors, and a handful of federal statutes fill in protections for private-sector employees depending on the industry.

How These Claims Actually Play Out

Employers almost never write down “fired for jury duty” or “fired for refusing to lie.” The reason on paper is usually performance, attitude, or a vague “fit” issue that magically appeared right after the protected activity. That’s why timing and documents do most of the heavy lifting.

The kind of evidence that matters includes the jury summons or your time-off request, any emails about it, what you were told when you came back, performance reviews from before the issue, the written reason for the termination, and how coworkers in similar situations were treated. If a severance agreement lands on your desk soon after, the release language inside almost always waives the exact claim you’d want to bring. Reading it carefully before signing matters.

Talk to a Wrongful Termination Attorney in DC Before You Decide What to Do

Public policy claims sit at the intersection of statute and common law in DC, and they reward people who move quickly while the trail is fresh. If you were fired after jury duty, voting, or refusing to do something that didn’t sit right, what happened to you may fit squarely inside one of these protections. Talking it through with a wrongful termination attorney in DC at The Mundaca Law Firm is the cleanest way to find out where you stand and what your options actually look like.