Justice Shouldn’t Cost This Much

When you’re retaliated against at work — when you have the evidence, the timeline, the documentation, and the truth — you think the next step is obvious:

I just need an attorney.

That’s the lie we all believe at first:

that justice is accessible, that there’s a roadmap, that if you do everything “right,” help will appear.

But here’s what actually happens.

You Start Calling for Help — and Nobody Calls Back

You start making calls. Endless calls.

Intake lines. Gatekeepers. Voicemails.

You repeat your story over and over, hoping someone will care enough to return the call.

Most of the time, you get silence.

If you’re lucky, you get a no.

And if you’re really lucky?

You get someone from a big-name firm telling you — bluntly — what no one admits out loud:

“We don’t help people preserve their careers. We only get involved if there’s a settlement. We take 40%.”

What happens if you don’t want to settle?

What if you want your career back?

What if you want your name back?

What if you want accountability, not hush money?

Nobody helps with that.

Meanwhile, Your Life Is Falling Apart

You’re pushed out of your job.

The disability carrier denies your claim.

You lose your income, your stability, your health.

No representation.

No protection.

No way forward.

And on top of the financial collapse, there’s the emotional one:

You’re retraumatized every time you have to retell what happened.

You’re living the retaliation twice — once in your body, once in the telling.

You repeat the same details to ten different people, only to hear:

“Sorry, not a strong enough case.”

“There’s no money in it.”

But the truth is, it’s not even about strength.

It’s about convenience.

It’s about whether your case is clean, easy, and profitable.

If it takes real advocacy? They walk away.

It’s Not About Justice — It’s About Whether You’re “Worth It”

A national employment firm told me the quiet part out loud:

They didn’t want to do the hard work:

• Making sure I could exit cleanly

• Protecting my license

• Ensuring no one billed under my name

• Preventing blackballing

They only wanted a quick check.

You’re not asking for a lottery win.

You’re asking for someone to say:

This matters.

YOU matter.

What happened to you matters.

But the only people who matter in the current system are the ones with a legal department, a corporate defense firm, an insurance carrier, and an HR team dedicated to grinding you down.

You?

You’re just trying to get one phone call returned.

“Get an Attorney.” As If That’s Easy.

I think about the workers’ comp judge who kept repeating:

“You’re confused. You need an attorney.”

As if that was a magic wand.

As if I hadn’t already tried.

As if I hadn’t emailed and called every name on every list I could find.

They made it sound like I didn’t care enough to try.

But I did.

The truth is, the system is built to ensure that people who need help the most get it the least.

If your case is complicated, emotional, or requires effort?

Nobody wants it.

And even if you find someone, they want thousands of dollars upfront.

So what happens to:

• The people who are right, but broke?

• The disabled professionals who were silenced and can’t afford the fight?

• The ones who don’t want to settle and stay quiet?

• The ones who want justice, not hush money?

They disappear.

And That Is the Real Injustice

We shouldn’t have to go broke to get justice.

We shouldn’t have to choose between telling the truth and being housed.

We shouldn’t have to trade our names for someone else’s paycheck.

Something has to change.

Because justice shouldn’t require wealth.

It shouldn’t require connections.

It shouldn’t require surviving multiple systems designed to protect everyone except the harmed.

Justice shouldn’t cost this much.