Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

When whistleblowers win their cases, it is often years after they got fired.  When a judge adds up all the years of back pay, the whistleblower will then have to pay taxes from a higher tax bracket. Whistleblowers can end up getting less than what would have happened had they never been fired.

Last month, the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals recognized this problem and allowed a court to increase a plaintiff's award to compensate for the negative tax consequence of getting back pay in a lump sum.  The decision is Eshelman v. Agere Systems, Inc., No. 05-4895 (3d Cir. Jan. 30, 2009). The decision highlights the need for the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act.

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