Discrimination by a Store or Business Against You (consumer discrimination)

Can a business refuse service to anyone?

       No. California law makes it illegal for a business to refuse service to anybody. Although many businesses hang signs which say, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anybody," the signs are not legal. Many times these signs are a way for a business to discriminate. Simply put, it is illegal.

How do you prove discrimination?

It should come as no surprise to anybody that it is illegal for a store or business to discriminate against customers. It is an obvious case of discrimination if the clerk of a store says to the African American customer, "I'm sorry, but our company does not do business with Blacks." The tricky part is spotting the hidden discrimination that takes place. Our firm has found that many victims of discrimination do not realize that they have been the victim of racial discrimination. As bizarre as this seems, it is true. A few examples should help you understand how "secret" discrimination occurs.

Example #1: Assume that Debbie, an African American woman, goes into a restaurant and asks for an application for a waitress position. Debbie is informed by the manager that they are not hiring. At this point, Debbie has no reason to believe that she has been the victim of discrimination. A few minutes after Debbie leaves, Jennifer, a white woman, comes into the same store and is given an application for the same waitressing position. This could very likely be an incident of racial discrimination. In this type of situation, our law firm would send out "testers" (people working undercover) to further test whether there has been discrimination. If the undercover work shows a pattern of differential treatment between whites and African Americans, then this would be considered racial discrimination.

Example #2: Jose, a Mexican man, applies for a loan from a bank. Jose earns $35,000 a year and has a good credit history. Jose is informed that he does not qualify for the loan based upon his income. Jose leaves, sad that he does not qualify. However, Jose does not realize that the bank has not been strictly enforcing its policy, and has been allowing white customers with lower income to qualify for the loans. If the bank gives a break to a white customer, but not to Jose, then it has discriminated against Jose.

Example #3: Virgil, an African American man, returns a shirt to a department store that he received as a gift. Virgil does not have a receipt. Virgil is questioned at length about the shirt. Eventually, the store refuses to give Virgil a refund. However, it is learned that white customers are regularly given refunds or credit when returning goods without a receipt. In such a case, Virgil has a claim for racial discrimination against the store.

It is a rare case of discrimination that is proved with direct evidence, that is, evidence that obviously shows that the company discriminated ("We don't serve blacks"). Rather, the more common racial discrimination case is proved with indirect evidence, sometimes referred to as circumstantial evidence. The law considers indirect evidence to be as powerful as direct evidence. You can use either direct or indirect evidence to prove a case of racial discrimination at trial.

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