If You Lost Your Job in Orange County and Then Lost Your Health Coverage or Benefits, Give Us a Call

Whether your Southern California employer failed to send you a COBRA notice after firing you, terminated you right before your pension or stock options were set to vest, or fired you because you filed a health insurance claim or used disability benefits, Orange County Employment Law Firm is ready to help. We’re a boutique employment law firm in Santa Ana, CA that is dedicated to defending the rights of workers throughout Orange County and Southern California. Many Orange County employees don’t realize that the loss of their benefits isn’t just a bureaucratic mistake — it may be an unlawful termination or a federal violation that entitles them to significant compensation under both federal law and California employment law.

In order to hold your Orange County employer accountable for benefits-related misconduct, you need a lawyer that specializes in employment law and understands where federal benefits protections overlap with California employment law. At Orange County Employment Law Firm, our COBRA and ERISA attorneys have the knowledge and experience necessary to take on even the largest companies in Southern California and get our clients the maximum compensation they are owed. With our small but dedicated team, you can expect to have easy access to your attorney and receive a personalized experience that is largely unavailable through most large Orange County law firms. We operate on a contingency-fee basis, which means that there are no out-of-pocket costs to open your case, and no fees until we win your case–guaranteed!

What Our Orange County Employment Lawyers Handle: Where Benefits Law Meets California Employment Law

Our Santa Ana-based firm focuses on the intersection of federal benefits law and California employment law for workers across Orange County. That includes:

Wrongful terminations designed to interfere with benefits (ERISA §510 violations)
COBRA notice failures following termination by Orange County employers
Retaliation for filing a health insurance, disability, or workers’ compensation claim
Terminations timed to avoid pension vesting, stock option vesting, or bonus payouts
Denial of benefits as a form of workplace discrimination or retaliation

For complex, standalone benefits claims — such as long-term disability denials or pension calculation disputes that don’t involve employment misconduct — we work alongside ERISA specialists throughout Southern California to make sure our clients’ rights are fully protected.

It’s Important to Know What Rights You Have Under ERISA §510 as an Orange County Employee

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is a federal law that governs most employer-provided benefit plans offered by Orange County and Southern California employers, including health insurance, retirement plans, pensions, and stock options. Section 510 of ERISA (29 U.S.C. §1140) makes it unlawful for an employer to “discharge, fine, suspend, expel, discipline, or discriminate against” an employee for the purpose of interfering with their attainment of any right to which they are entitled under a benefit plan.

In plain English: your Orange County employer cannot fire you to stop you from vesting, using, or collecting benefits you’ve earned or are about to earn. Common ERISA §510 violations our Newport Beach attorneys see across Orange County include terminating an employee shortly before pension or 401(k) vesting, firing a worker to avoid paying out stock options or deferred compensation (a common issue at Irvine and Newport Beach tech and finance companies), and terminating an employee who has filed — or whose spouse or child has filed — expensive claims under the employer’s health insurance plan.

A successful ERISA §510 claim can entitle you to reinstatement, front pay in lieu of reinstatement, recovery of lost benefits, and attorney’s fees. It’s important to note that unlike California state-law employment claims, ERISA does not allow recovery of punitive damages or emotional distress damages — which is one reason these cases are often pursued alongside state-law wrongful termination or discrimination claims, when the facts support it. Our Orange County employment lawyers know how to identify and develop both sets of claims to maximize your recovery.

COBRA Protections for Orange County Employees After Termination

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) generally applies to employers with 20 or more employees — which covers most mid-size and large Orange County employers — and requires them to offer terminated employees (and in many cases their spouses and dependents) the opportunity to continue their group health insurance coverage at their own expense. Standard COBRA coverage lasts up to 18 months following termination or reduction in hours, and can extend to up to 36 months in certain circumstances (such as the covered employee’s death, divorce, a dependent child losing dependent status, or a qualifying disability).

California’s “Cal-COBRA” law (California Health & Safety Code §1366.20 et seq. and California Insurance Code §10128.50 et seq.) fills the gap for smaller Orange County employers. Cal-COBRA applies to employers with 2–19 employees and provides continuation coverage of up to 36 months — significantly longer than federal COBRA’s 18-month baseline. Cal-COBRA also serves as a “top-off” for employees of larger employers who have exhausted their federal COBRA: once federal COBRA ends, eligible California employees may continue coverage under Cal-COBRA up to a combined total of 36 months from the original COBRA start date. This gives California workers broader continuation-coverage protection than employees in most other states.

The COBRA Notice Process — and How Orange County Employers Get It Wrong

After a qualifying event like termination or reduction in hours, the law sets strict deadlines. The employer generally has 30 days to notify the plan administrator of the qualifying event. The plan administrator then has 14 days to send the qualified beneficiary a written COBRA election notice. When the employer is also the plan administrator (which is common), the total deadline is 44 days from the qualifying event. Once the notice is received, the qualified beneficiary has 60 days to elect COBRA coverage.

Orange County employers who fail to send a COBRA election notice, send it late, or send a notice that is defective or misleading can be held liable under ERISA §502(c)(1), 29 U.S.C. §1132(c)(1), for statutory penalties of up to $110 per day, per qualified beneficiary, at the court’s discretion. Courts also have authority to award the medical expenses you incurred during the period you should have been offered coverage, as well as attorney’s fees and costs. When a COBRA failure is combined with a wrongful termination — for example, when an Orange County employee is fired in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and then never receives a COBRA notice — the combined claims can significantly increase the value of your case.

Common Benefits-Related Employment Violations by Orange County Employers:

Firing an employee just before pension, 401(k), or stock option vesting
Terminating an employee to stop expensive medical claims by the employee or a family member
Firing an employee who took FMLA, CFRA, or California pregnancy disability leave
Retaliation against employees who file California workers’ compensation claims
Failure to provide a COBRA election notice after termination
Providing late, incomplete, defective, or misleading COBRA notices
Cutting hours to push an employee below benefits eligibility thresholds
Misclassifying workers as independent contractors to deny benefits (a growing issue in Orange County’s gig economy)
Denying accrued vacation, PTO, or deferred compensation upon termination
Retaliating against an employee for asking questions about their benefits or plan

Why Orange County Employees Often Miss These Claims

Benefits-related misconduct is one of the most under-recognized areas of employment law in Southern California. When an employee in Orange County is fired, they usually focus on the termination itself — not the timing relative to their vesting schedule, not whether their family’s recent medical claims may have played a role, not whether the COBRA packet ever arrived. By the time they realize what happened, valuable evidence and deadlines may be slipping away. This is why a free case review with an experienced Orange County employment attorney is so important — we know what to look for, and we know how to develop both the federal benefits claims and the California state-law claims that often arise from the same facts.

Call Our Newport Beach Employment Lawyers Today for a Free Case Review Within 24 Hours

If you believe your Orange County employer terminated you to interfere with your benefits, failed to provide a proper COBRA notice, or retaliated against you for using health insurance, disability, or workers’ compensation benefits, please call our office immediately for a FREE, no obligation case review. Our Orange County COBRA and ERISA violation attorney will return your call within 24 hours to discuss whether you have a claim that could entitle you to compensation, including lost wages, lost benefits, statutory penalties, reinstatement, and attorney’s fees.

Orange County Employment Law Firm is a boutique law firm in Newport Beach that is dedicated to helping employees throughout Orange County recover money from their employers. We serve workers across Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Dana Point, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Tustin, Villa Park, and Yorba Linda. Because of our small size, low overhead costs and limited number of cases, we’re able to offer an intimate and personalized experience tailored to each client’s specific needs, which helps ensure that we maximize their results. We’re so confident in our representation that there’s no fee unless we obtain a settlement for you.