# Fair Layoff? Or Wrongful Termination? > Source: > Published: 2026-06-16 15:31:44+00:00 #### FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **[New York, NY] — June 16, 2026** — [Thurgood](https://www.askthurgood.com), the employee-advocacy firm that represents workers before the EEOC, OSHA, the U.S. Department of Labor, and state administrative agencies, has rebuilt its platform around a simple idea: a worker should be able to say what happened in plain language, see which laws are meant to protect them — in minutes, for free — and, if there's a match, be connected straight to representation. [CaseFile AI](https://www.askthurgood.com/casefile-ai), now more capable and powered by Claude, takes a worker's plain-language account of what happened and matches it to the statutes — checking the story against the specific protections that may apply, flagging the details that may present challenges, and surfacing jurisdictional information specific to all 50 states. If everything stacks up, Thurgood offers a free consultation with an Authorized Justice Practitioner who can represent the claim. That experience is built on a track record. Since launching in 2024, Thurgood has evaluated more than 2,000 claimants and represented workers in discrimination, retaliation, whistleblower, and medical-leave matters — before the EEOC and OSHA, and in state administrative agencies across New York, Illinois, Washington, California, and Texas. The rebuilt platform turns everything the firm has learned from those cases into something faster, more accurate, and easier to use, so a worker can get real answers — and real help — sooner. A match leads to the core of what Thurgood does: [real representation](https://www.askthurgood.com/representation), without a law firm or a courtroom. Its Authorized Justice Practitioners are not attorneys, but they are authorized — by the same statutes and regulations the agencies themselves operate under — to represent a worker before the EEOC, OSHA, the Department of Labor, and state civil-rights and labor agencies. From there the process mirrors a traditional employment firm: Thurgood notifies the employer, builds the worker's timeline and evidence, and presses for a private settlement first, filing formal charges and representing the worker through the agency only if the employer won't resolve it. The claims it handles are the ones that most often go unrepresented — discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and retaliation for taking protected medical leave among them. The same intake engine is now available to [employment law firms](https://www.askthurgood.com/casefile-ai-demo), too, as a supplement to their existing intake. For a firm, CaseFile AI gives motivated leads a fast, easy way to share a detailed account of what happened, checks it against the relevant federal and state statutory requirements, and fast-tracks the strongest prospects to the top of the intake queue — screening across discrimination, whistleblower, and FMLA matters under the EEOC, OSHA, the DOL Wage & Hour Division, and applicable state agencies. Each finished profile flows straight into the case-management system the firm already uses — Clio, Filevine, MyCase, and others — with no rekeying and no exports. The [Thurgood Library](https://www.askthurgood.com/thurgood-library) is where a worker can dig into the details on their own, understanding their situation in full rather than settling for a national summary written for no one in particular. For every U.S. state, it maps each major type of employment claim to both routes a worker can take — the state path through their own civil-rights or labor agency, and the federal path through the EEOC, OSHA, or the Department of Labor — with the governing statutes, filing deadlines, and how agency representation works, all cited to primary government sources. From there it moves into the questions people actually ask: the potential awards at stake, how settlement and severance negotiations tend to unfold, what the agency process looks like step by step, and when hiring a lawyer is the right call and when it isn't. "More than 40 million Americans lose their jobs every year, and far too many were treated badly on the way out — yet more than 90% of the claims filed with the EEOC come from workers with no one in their corner," said founder [Brandon Burns](https://www.askthurgood.com/team). "Bad employers only change when enough people can push back, and for most workers that's been too hard, too slow, and too expensive for too long. Thurgood exists to change that, and the rebuild makes standing up faster and easier than it's ever been." Next is [ClaimBuilder AI](https://www.askthurgood.com/claimbuilder-ai), now open for waitlist signups: it turns a finished CaseFile into the documents a filing requires — a demand letter, an agency complaint — written to the requirements of whichever agency a worker chooses. It is the platform's first wholly new tool, and a marker of where Thurgood is headed: more of the work that once required a lawyer, placed directly in workers' hands. Thurgood was built on a gap. Most people who could bring a workplace claim never do — lawyers are expensive, deadlines pass quickly, and smaller cases get turned away. For two years the firm has closed that gap one claimant at a time; the rebuild is how it closes it faster. Its ask to everyone else is simple: if you know someone who was just fired, or who sees it coming, send them to a free evaluation at [www.askthurgood.com](https://www.askthurgood.com) — open now, in all 50 states. **About Thurgood** Thurgood is an employee-advocacy firm representing workers before the EEOC, OSHA, and other federal and state administrative agencies. Founded in April 2024, it focuses on the people most often turned away elsewhere, guiding them from first questions through settlement and agency filings in all 50 states. *Thurgood provides employee advocacy and representation before administrative agencies. Its tools and evaluations offer general information to help workers understand their situations and are not legal advice.* **Media Contact** hello@askthurgood.com · [www.askthurgood.com](https://www.askthurgood.com)