LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2018  — Carney Shegerian, trial lawyer and founder of the Los Angeles-based employment discrimination firm Shegerian & Associates, recently released a statement regarding the Court of Appeal’s decision to affirm the trial court’s finding of age and disability discrimination against the Los Angeles Timesand in favor of well-known journalist T.J. Simers.

Simers worked for the Los Angeles Times since 1990 before suffering a mini-stroke in 2013. Upon his return to work, Simers’s editors began gradually reducing the frequency of his popular sports column before ultimately removing him from the highly coveted columnist page and demoting his position.

“T.J. Simers was a highly respected and well-known sports journalist whose work was frequently praised by his superiors as well as others,” Shegerian says. “The decision to reduce then remove his column was made out of motivation of his age and disability.”

“Sadly, Mr. Simers is not the only one who has been discriminated against by the Los Angeles Times,” Shegerian continues. “Other witness testimony revealed that the publication frequently targeted older employees when making layoffs. In fact, an assistant testified that Mr. Simers’s supervisor, Mike James, even confided in her that he was told to target older employees.”

“The only way to stop companies from continuing to engage in discriminatory practices is to hold them accountable in court,” Shegerian states. “We are thankful that the Court of Appeals has decided to do just that by affirming the discrimination finding.”