How to Pursue an HIV/AIDS Discrimination Lawsuit

The HIV virus as seen through an electron microscope.

Despite a much higher level of education and understanding in society today, compared with society 10 or 20 years ago, there is still a shocking amount of prejudice and ignorance on the topic of HIV and AIDS. Because of this fact, there's also a great deal of discrimination that takes place towards those who suffer from either HIV or AIDS. And, although it can be extremely difficult, embarrassing, and time-consuming, the best recourse for someone who experiences discrimination because of their HIV/AIDS status can often be a civil lawsuit.

Instructions

1. Determine whether you have been subject to discrimination particularly because of the fact that you have HIV or AIDS. Discrimination that takes place because of this fact, and has no basis in other factors, definitely opens the other party to legal liability. If you believe that your HIV/AIDS status kept you from being hired, terminated your job, kept you from receiving proper service, or in some other way affected your basic treatment as a human being, you have grounds for a lawsuit.

2. Contact and retain a good tort attorney. Tort attorneys specialize exclusively in civil lawsuits and will also help you to determine if you have an actionable case. The tort attorney who handles your case should be willing to do so on a contingency basis. In other words, you don't pay them anything unless you win the case. The standard contingency is about 1/3, so the attorney will receive 1/3 of whatever your lawsuit recovers.

3. See what offer the opposing party is willing to offer. In the vast majority of lawsuits, the party at fault (or at least accused of being at fault) is willing to settle the lawsuit out of court in order to save the time, money, and bad publicity involved in a long, drawn-out court battle. This is especially true in HIV and AIDS discrimination cases because of the inherent bad publicity. If the other party offers an equitable out-of-court settlement, it's often best to take their offer than to take your chances in the courtroom.

4. Take the case to court if the other party isn't willing to negotiate or if it is more important, in your opinion, to have their misdeeds become public knowledge. The main problem with settling out of court is that such settlements generally require a gag clause which prohibits the plaintiff from divulging the nature of the settlement or commenting on the case publicly. If this will be too difficult for you, or your main motive is to expose the injustice of the discrimination that took place, it's best to bring the case to court, no matter what settlements are offered.

Tips & Warnings

• Some tort attorneys may turn down cases that they don't believe to be profitable enough or actionable. Don't give up after consulting only one attorney, though. If, after you visit 5 or 6 attorneys, you're unable to find one to represent you, then you can consider dropping the matter, but try not to get discouraged in the beginning.

• Remember, a discrimination lawsuit regarding HIV/AIDS can become extremely personal and difficult. Only pursue your case if you're prepared to suffer through the indignities and hard times that will naturally come during the course of the lawsuit.