Retaliation Firing
employment attorney South Dakota Aug 21, 2026
Location: South Dakota Hello hive mind. I will try to keep this brief but informative. I worked for a company delivering packages. Was injured on the job while helping train a new driver, though I was new as well, just slightly less new. Injury occurred July 16th, 2026. I lifted a bag of packages and turned to place it in a more accessible spot. When I did that, my knee felt like it was going to give out for a moment. My coworker saw me go unsteady and asked if I was okay, but I kind of brushed it off. I was able to set the packages where I wanted them, the other driver went to make his deliveries and I sat in the passenger seat, not realizing that anything had really gone wrong. During training they warn you that everybody gets sore since it's a high impact job so that's all I thought I was feeling. I finished out my shift slightly sore but not realizing it was anything out of the ordinary. Saw my boss at the end of the day then went home. I had the next two days, Friday and Saturday, off per my schedule so I expected to just sleep it off. Come Sunday morning I realized I couldn't put any weight on my leg so I texted my boss as soon as I woke up and let him know what was wrong. He had me take the day off, but I had to come in later to fill incident report out. While filling it out, I informed my boss I want to go to an orthopedic urgent care which opened the following morning. He told me no, go to this urgent care that he sent me the address to. Come to find out, it's the place they contract with for all their pre employment screenings and what not, so I feel like I had my choice of provider taken from me in lieu of someone who could possibly have incentive to find against me. At the urgent care, I get an X-ray which didn't reveal anything, nurse said I would likely need an MRI, she suspected soft tissue damage. Scheduled me for a follow up 8 days later. Gives me light duty restrictions, 10lb weight limit, crutches, no ladders, etc. Go home for the day, boss tells me to be at work at 9am the following morning (Monday). I show up for light duty Monday, boss tells me I need to go take a UA. So I drive to do that, after the UA, my boss says we had route reductions so I can vto. I agree because I'm intense pain. Tuesday is my day off, I report Wednesday for light duty. Wednesday morning when I show up, my boss points at a metal folding chair and says my light duty is to take the chair out to the street corner and hold a now hiring sign while sitting in the chair. Mind you, the street corner was at least 150 yards by my estimation. I looked at him and asked how he expected me to carry a chair at all, let alone that far? He said fine I'll carry it out for you. The walk took me approximately 7 or 8 minutes going as fast as I could, huffing and puffing. He said I get two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break which start the moment I stand up from the chair. When I went to my first 15 minute break approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes in, it took me 8 minutes to get to the building entrance, further time to make my way to the bathroom, them straight back out to the chair. 22 minutes. As I got back out to the chair my boss had texted me telling to me come see him at his desk. When I got there, another 8 minute walk after I just did it twice on my crutches, he pulled up a copy of the employee handbook. He said when I was hired I agreed to the handbook, and one of the rules is I must report any injury the same day it happens. Since I agreed, he said that was grounds for termination. Fired me on the spot verbally, didn't have me sign anything. That is the facts as they pertain to the injury and the following days leading up to the termination. I've tried to speak to a couple employment lawyers but they seemed unwilling to do anything since no contracts were broken; perhaps I just haven't found the correct attorney. As well, I'm open to the idea that they did nothing wrong, but all kinds of people WHO ARE NOT ATTORNEYS that hear the details tell me it sounds like something I need to pursue, so I'm hoping somebody with a little more knowledge could chime in.
