Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with suing or taking legal action against a club..or knows any lawyers in the reading or philly area i could talk to.
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Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with suing or taking legal action against a club..or knows any lawyers in the reading or philly area i could talk to.
i am sure some have and won, and some have and lost,
it might help if you describe the situation
Unless it's class-action, it'd probably be far more effort than it's worth. We don't know anything about your backstory so I can't say that for sure. But unless you're looking for some serious payout (i.e. class-action), you'll probably just end up losing quite a bit of money and going through an incredible amount of trouble / emotional strain.
Have you considered reporting the club to the police? That probably wouldn't result in anything significant, but at least then you wouldn't be out money for lawyers' fees and whatnot...
My clubs been trying to fire me because they told me i was to big, ive lost weight since then and had lost weight before they said anything they said id be in breach of contract tho our.contract doesn't state anything abt weight. I'm not really planning on taking them to court just wondered if it had been done. I spoke with a da the other day and she said id have a shot but like u said it'll probably be more work then what it'll be worth
personally i don't think you would ever win a case like that, its kind of like a 300 pound girl auditioning at a club and then suing them because she didn't get hired because of her weight,
and even if you won the case, you would probably spend more money on legal fees then you would win
^^^ unfortunately, the Disney and Bellagio legal precedents are squarely against you.
As an hired entertainer they have the right to set standards of appearance in their venue. Either lose weight (and probably make more $) or go to a club that's less strict on their requirements.
Some clubs have big girl nights like thick Thursday's or whatever and you can't dance if you're too thin. It's the entertainment industry.
You won't win, find a club that will take you as is or lose weight.
Almost all clubs in the US call their dancers "independent contractors." This pretty much means you have no rights when it comes to your club's hiring and firing practices. They don't have to allow you to work there even if you were a perfect 10. It's their prerogative. If you work at a club where you are actually paid hourly or per shift (not sure if that even exists in the US), you might have a case.
Michael Fattorosi is an adult entertainment lawyer. Here's his link https://twitter.com/pornlaw
Not from an entertainment attorney but still informative. Check this out: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/02...iscrimination/
3. Too fat: While employers can and do fire, and refuse to hire or promote people because they are overweight, if you are obese, you might be protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act. If only overweight women are targeted (or only men), then there might be sex discrimination. I haven't seen a case like this, but I suspect that a person from a nationality that is disproportionately overweight might argue that weight standards have a disparate impact on their nationality. Michigan makes weight discrimination expressly illegal. Some cities, such as Santa Cruz, Calif., Binghamton, N.Y., and San Francisco have ordinances against weight discrimination. There's a bill pending in Massachusetts that would also make weight discrimination illegal.(snip)
Assuming you are not obese you'd have a hard time with a case like this. Keep on your regimen and keep looking for alternative clubs.
Thx for all the input i had lost the weight they asked but i wasn't got fired neways it is what it is no court though i didn't really plan on it just had a lot of ppl pushing me to do it but it's not worth the effort. Does anyone know any good clubs in philly or ac?
I've been told I had to lose weight or "we can't fit you into the schedule" I wear a size 2 and at that time I was still a size 2 but my clothes were very snug. I was in no way overweight but some clubs are strict.
I had this co dancer that was literally very overweight and the only reason she danced anywhere was because this club literally had no hiring standards, anything went. Well she got fired for getting too fucked up.
She then struggled to find a place that would hire her, saying things like
I know I'm pretty
I know I'm not ugly
I know I'm fine
Eventually she stopped looking and I don't know what she ended up doing but I do remember me telling her she needed to tone up and she got angry. I kinda thought it was stupid. We can argue equal rights blah blah but the truth is men come into the club to see and meet fantasy creatures, not someone bigger than his wife. Imo that speaks badly about the club and word will get around about the quality of dancers.
doesn't this only apply to employees and not contractors? an independent contractor doesn't need a reason for getting fired, because they can just end the contract.
anyway, most of my contracts have included vague language like" represents club appropriately" and "keeps a professional appearance" which can easily be translated into your weight when your walking around naked.
^^^ arguably, independent contractors remain 'employed' based on whatever sort of verbage the club chooses to place in the contract. However, even with 'independent contactor' status, there is still a case to be made that the club is actually enforcing a degree of 'control' which corresponds to an 'employer / employee' relationship. Thus a 'downstream' case could be made that, as newly ruled 'employees', dancers who were fired due to age / physical appearance etc. were actually protected by federal and state 'employee discrimination' laws ( like the ADA cited above ) - were thus 'wrongfully dismissed' - and are thus deserving of a 'damages' award from the newly ruled 'employer' club.
However, the Bellagio and Disney precedents more or less prevent such a 'downstream' case from being made, since in both of those earlier cases the court ruled that the 'employer' could enforce physical appearance / weight standards ... and as such said employees were NOT protected by 'employee discrimination' laws if they were fired because their physical appearance / weight changed significantly from when they were hired. It's a logical assumption that clubs could easily make a counter-case that physical appearance is an inherent requirement for effectively performing the job of exotic dancer.
And you are correct that, in the absence of a written contract, 'independent contractor' dancers can be fired for virtually any reason the club can think up ... with no direct legal recourse available ! But, as a whole bunch of recent lawsuits have already established, it's now fairly easy for suing 'independent contractor' dancers to legally establish that they in fact were entitled to 'employee' status due to the degree of 'control' the club exerted on their schedules, their stage performances, etc. Thus from the standpoint of potential lawsuit 'exposure', attorneys for chain clubs are undoubtedly advising their clients that it's unlikely they can still successfully 'hide behind' an independent contractor defense ... because the first topic of any lawsuit will be to seek 'employee' status for the dancers, which in turn allows additional topics to be brought into the lawsuit involving infringement upon 'employee rights'. Past cases have primarily involved additional topics like minimum wage payments. But in the absence of the Bellagio / Disney precedents, 'wrongful dismissal' due to age or weight could easily be claimed as well.
the contracts I remember reading usually said something along the lines of "either party can terminate the contract voluntarily" so if that's actually standard for independent contractor contracts, then even with the written contract the club would not need to defend their decision t fire in any way.