Police & Government Misconduct
If a government has violated your rights, or if you are a government whistleblower, talk to us.
We have been there. We have done that. We can help.
Risking Your Health: Emotional Distress
The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that some whistleblowers have suffered serious health problems after feeling that they had “lost everything”.
Whistleblowers often have their reputations smeared by their employers in an effort to reduce their credibility.
Many have been accused of being liars, especially when the employer has no legitimate explanation for why it never acted to stop the reported misconduct.
Retaliation is often evidence of the ever-widening gap between the ethical ideal and a political reality that employees know and understand.
Some employers continue to retaliate against former employees even after a lawsuit is filed.
Perhaps this is why, of all the human qualities, ethics remains the least compromising – the one with the hardest edge. Because exercising one’s ethics can cost a job, or a career.
Standing-up for what is right is inconvenient, and embarrassing. It means standing out. It also means weathering the marshaled criticism of well-organized conformists who see ethics as a threat to corrupt management practices.
Weak leaders often target the whistleblower as the problem, to send a message to other employees that exercising one’s ethics doesn’t pay, it costs.
Don’t be bullied. Call us. Get help.
Learn More from the National Whistleblower Center.
Government Whistleblowers in the Public Eye
As a government employee, exercising your ethics is a profoundly public act.
Almost two hundred and forty years ago Thomas Jefferson wrote that if we do not exercise our ethical muscle it will become soft from lack of use and fail us when we need it most.
Today public servants continue to struggle with the age-old question, one that has been with us since Gregory the Great in the Sixth century: Whether to obey a superior when the order is unjust.
Seventy years ago Nazi officials were tried and convicted at Nuremberg for obeying unlawful orders. But increasingly in today’s world, those who help others carry-out unlawful orders are neither charged nor investigated.
Why? Because hierarchical organizations do not automatically recognize a social obligation as the duty of each individual. Instead they value loyalty above truth-telling.
Thomas Drake, the NSA whistleblower who now lectures across the country, tells the story of how he lost his job in upper management at the NSA and ended-up working in an Apple store before becoming a plaintiff in a multi-million dollar whistleblower case against the federal government.
Protect yourself. Stand your ground. Don’t be a victim.
Despite recent legal progress, government employees who report corruption can face devastating financial and personal consequences even before they blow the whistle.
We understand the pressure and stress that comes with fearing for your job, career, and retirement.
The best time to talk to a lawyer is before your employment is wrongfully terminated.
Talk to Us
If you have evidence of police or government misconduct, talk to us. We will explain your rights and help you protect yourself.
Call (616) 414-4589 or send us an e-mail.