How a New Hampshire Employment Lawyer Can Help You
First, you are less likely to qualify for unemployment benefits if you quit your job. New Hampshire’s unemployment statute, RSA 282-A, states that an individual is disqualified from unemployment benefits if he/she leaves work voluntarily without good cause attributable to the employer (see RSA 282-A:32). It will be a factual question of whether you voluntarily left with or without “good cause attributable to the employer.”
Pursuing Legal Claims
Second, if there are legal claims that you wish to pursue against the employer, it is generally easier to pursue those claims if you have not resigned. If you resign—and you want to try to collect lost wages going forward from the date you quit your job until the date where you can find another job that pays you the same as your prior job—then you will need to prove that you were “constructively discharged.”
What Is Constructive Discharge?
A “constructive discharge” occurs when an employer, through illegal employment practices, imposes on an employee working conditions that are so intolerable, a reasonable person would feel compelled to leave his/her job rather than submit to them.
There is no mathematically precise test for determining whether an employer has subjected an employee to working conditions that are so intolerable that a reasonable person would feel compelled to leave his/her job rather than submit to them. Instead, the Court (and/or a jury) will consider all of the evidence—or the totality of the circumstances—in determining whether or not there was a constructive discharge. If you are unable to prove that you were constructively discharged, then you will not be able to recover the lost wages that you suffer after you quit your job.
Contact a New Hampshire Employment Lawyer
Before making a decision, you should seek legal advice from an experienced employment law attorney.
