Employment lawyer in New Braunfels, TX who protects employee rights
If you were fired, harassed, or cheated out of pay by an employer in New Braunfels, you have legal rights most workers never learn about until it is too late. Employers and their HR departments start building their defense the moment a problem surfaces. You need an employment lawyer in New Braunfels, TX who prepares every case for trial and who will tell you straight whether you have a claim worth pursuing.
New Braunfels is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, with a population of roughly 125,000 that has climbed about 35 percent since 2020. That growth runs on workers: teachers and staff in the local school districts, nurses and technicians in healthcare, crews on manufacturing lines, and a large seasonal workforce built around the Comal and Guadalupe rivers, Gruene, and the area’s waterpark and hospitality businesses. Major employers in the area include Comal ISD, New Braunfels ISD, Resolute Baptist Hospital, Canadian General Tower, Rush Enterprises, and Schlitterbahn Waterpark, which alone brings on roughly 2,000 seasonal employees.
A workforce that big, spread across school districts, hospitals, factories, and seasonal tourism operations, generates real employment disputes: terminations that cross legal lines, harassment that management ignores, and paychecks that come up short. Key Trial Lawyers maintains an office right here in New Braunfels at 773 Loop 337, a few minutes from downtown and the Comal County courthouse complex, so you can sit down with an attorney without driving to Austin or San Antonio.
Consultations are free and confidential. Call (512) 861-1280 to talk through your situation with an attorney, not an intake screener.
Why New Braunfels workers choose our firm
Employers and their defense lawyers know which plaintiff’s firms fold at the first mediation and which ones will put a case in front of a jury. That reputation shapes every settlement conversation before it starts.
We prepare every case for a courtroom
From the first meeting, we work up your employment case as if a Comal County jury will hear it. That means locking down documents, timelines, and witnesses early, not scrambling for them after the employer’s lawyers make a lowball offer. When the other side knows you’re ready to try the case, fair resolutions come faster.
You deal with your attorney, not a case manager
Employment cases turn on details: who said what in the termination meeting, which coworker saw the harassment, what the write-up actually claimed. Those details get lost when your file bounces between assistants. At Key Trial Lawyers, the attorney handling your claim is the person who answers your questions, and the same firm handles personal injury cases in New Braunfels with that same direct-access approach.
A selective caseload, worked hard
We turn down more cases than we take. That’s deliberate. Employment claims demand time: reviewing personnel files, deposing managers, and building the paper trail that proves what really happened. Taking fewer cases lets us give yours the preparation it needs to hold up under an employer’s defense.
Employment claims we handle in New Braunfels
Key Trial Lawyers represents employees across the full range of workplace claims recognized under Texas and federal employment law. Here’s how those claims tend to show up in a job market anchored by school districts, healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing.
Wrongful termination
Texas is an at-will employment state, but at-will has limits. An employer cannot fire you because of your race, sex, age, religion, national origin, or disability, because you reported illegal conduct, because you filed a workers’ compensation claim, or because you refused to commit an illegal act. If your termination followed close on the heels of a complaint, a protected leave request, or a report of wrongdoing, the timing itself can be evidence.
Can your employer fire you for no reason in Texas? Yes, at-will employment lets Texas employers terminate workers without cause. But they cannot fire you for an illegal reason: discrimination based on a protected trait, retaliation for a complaint, or punishment for refusing to break the law. The stated reason for a firing is not always the real one.
Workplace discrimination
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code (the TCHRA) prohibit discrimination in hiring, pay, promotion, discipline, and firing. Discrimination claims come out of every corner of the New Braunfels economy, from school district administration offices to hospital floors to manufacturing plants along the I-35 corridor. Proving discrimination rarely depends on a smoking-gun statement. It’s built from patterns: who got promoted, who got written up, and how similar conduct was treated differently.
Sexual harassment and a hostile work environment
Since September 2021, Texas sexual harassment law reaches employers with even one employee, and it holds employers liable if they knew or should have known about harassment and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. That matters in a tourism economy like this one. Thousands of seasonal workers, many of them young and working their first jobs at river outfitters, restaurants, and attractions, are covered by the same law that protects a hospital nurse or a plant supervisor. Small employers who assume they’re too small to be sued for a hostile work environment are wrong.
Retaliation
Retaliation is the most common employment charge filed in Texas, and for a reason: employers who might never fire someone for their race will absolutely punish someone for complaining about it. If you reported discrimination, harassment, safety violations, or wage theft and then got demoted, cut from the schedule, or fired, you may have a retaliation claim even if the underlying complaint never becomes its own lawsuit.
Unpaid wages, overtime, and fair pay
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires overtime pay at time and a half for hours over 40 in a week, and the Texas Payday Law requires employers to pay everything they owe, on time. Wage disputes are common in seasonal and hourly-heavy industries: off-the-clock work before a shift opens, misclassified “managers” doing hourly work without overtime, tip pools that skim for the house, and final paychecks that never arrive. With a seasonal hospitality workforce as large as this area’s, we see all of it.
Is a seasonal job covered by employment law in Texas? Yes. Seasonal and part-time workers in New Braunfels have the same core protections as year-round employees: minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA, protection from discrimination and sexual harassment, and the right to be paid in full under the Texas Payday Law. A short season does not shrink your rights.
Deadlines and what to do if you were fired or harassed
Employment law deadlines are shorter and less forgiving than almost any other area of law. For discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, you generally must file a charge with the Texas Workforce Commission within 180 days of the discriminatory act, or with the EEOC within 300 days. Miss the window and the claim is usually gone, no matter how strong the facts are.
How long do you have to file a discrimination claim in Texas? You must file a charge with the Texas Workforce Commission within 180 days of the discriminatory act, or with the EEOC within 300 days. You cannot go straight to court; the agency charge comes first. Talking to an employment lawyer early protects both deadlines.
Wage claims run on their own clocks. FLSA overtime claims generally reach back two years, or three if the violation was willful. The lesson is the same across every claim type: the day you suspect something illegal happened at work is the day to start the conversation with a lawyer.
Start writing things down now. Dates, names, what was said, who was in the room. Save emails, texts, schedules, pay stubs, write-ups, and your employee handbook to a personal device or account, not your work computer, before your access gets cut off. Do not take documents you have no right to, but preserve what’s yours.
If harassment or discrimination is ongoing, report it through your employer’s stated process and keep proof that you did. An employer’s failure to act after a report is often the strongest part of the case. Be careful with exit paperwork: severance agreements almost always ask you to waive your legal claims, and once you sign, those claims are usually gone. Have a lawyer read the agreement before you do.
Then call us at (512) 861-1280. An attorney will tell you honestly whether the facts support a claim and what pursuing it would look like.
Where employment cases are heard in Comal County
New Braunfels is the county seat of Comal County, and part of the city extends into Guadalupe County. Most discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims begin as agency charges with the Texas Workforce Commission or the EEOC, and only move to court after the agency process runs its course.
When an employment case does go to court in Comal County, it may be filed in one of the district courts serving the county: the 22nd, 207th, 274th, 433rd, or 466th Judicial District Courts, with district court business handled at the Comal County Courthouse Annex at 150 N. Seguin Avenue in downtown New Braunfels. Comal County also has three County Courts at Law, with courtrooms on the first floor of the Comal County Landa Annex downtown, hearing civil cases from $501 to $250,000. Our New Braunfels office on Loop 337 is minutes from the courthouse complex.
For a deeper look at the claims we handle statewide, visit our employment law practice page.
Serving clients throughout New Braunfels and surrounding communities
From our office at 773 Loop 337, Key Trial Lawyers represents workers across New Braunfels, from downtown and Gruene to the Creekside area along I-35 and the fast-growing Veramendi community. Our New Braunfels team also represents clients in Seguin, Schertz, Cibolo, Canyon Lake, Bulverde, and San Marcos.
Wherever you work along this stretch of the I-35 corridor, if an employer broke the law, we’re close enough to meet in person and prepared to take the case as far as it needs to go. Employment disputes sometimes overlap with business and contract fights, and our New Braunfels civil litigation attorneys handle those matters under the same roof.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a discrimination complaint if I work in New Braunfels?
You generally must file a charge with the Texas Workforce Commission within 180 days of the discriminatory act, or with the EEOC within 300 days. These deadlines apply before any lawsuit can be filed, and missing them usually ends the claim. Contact an employment lawyer as soon as you suspect discrimination.
Is it worth suing my employer in Texas?
It depends on the facts, the evidence you can preserve, and the harm you suffered, which is exactly what a free consultation sorts out. A strong claim usually has a clear illegal reason and a paper trail. Because many employment statutes shift attorney’s fees to the employer and we work on contingency, pursuing a real claim rarely means paying out of pocket.
Does Texas harassment law protect seasonal workers in New Braunfels?
Yes. Since 2021, Texas sexual harassment law applies to employers with as few as one employee, and it covers seasonal and part-time workers, including the thousands hired each summer in New Braunfels tourism and hospitality. Employers must take immediate and appropriate corrective action once they know or should know about harassment.
Can my employer punish me for reporting unpaid overtime?
No. Firing, demoting, or cutting the hours of an employee because they complained about unpaid wages or overtime is illegal retaliation under federal law. Retaliation is a separate claim from the wage violation itself, which means you may recover for both. Keep records of your complaint and what happened after it.
Where would my employment lawsuit be filed if I work in New Braunfels?
Most claims start as an agency charge with the Texas Workforce Commission or EEOC. If the case proceeds to court in Comal County, it may be filed in the 22nd, 207th, 274th, 433rd, or 466th Judicial District Court, or in one of the three Comal County Courts at Law depending on the amount at stake.
Contact a New Braunfels employment lawyer today
Employment cases are won and lost on evidence that disappears fast: schedules get rewritten, emails get deleted under retention policies, and coworkers who saw everything move on to other jobs. The 180-day TWC deadline moves faster than most people expect. If something illegal happened to you at work, the time to find out where you stand is now.
Key Trial Lawyers offers a free, confidential consultation from our New Braunfels office on Loop 337. We handle most employment cases on a contingency fee basis, no attorney fees unless we recover money for you, and many employment statutes let a court order the employer to pay your fees on top. You’ll speak with an attorney who handles employment cases, get a straight assessment of your claim, and pay nothing to hear it.
Call (512) 861-1280 or reach out through our contact page to get started.
