Harassed at Work in California: The CRD Deadline, What to Save, and Whether an Arbitration Agreement Blocks Court

If you are being harassed at work in California, you generally have three years from the last time you were harmed to file a complaint with the Civil Rights Department (CRD), and you need a CRD right-to-sue notice before you can sue under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. A federal EEOC charge has a much shorter 300-day limit. If the harassment is sexual, an arbitration agreement you signed at hiring usually cannot force the case out of court if you choose to sue; harassment based on race, disability or another characteristic is not covered by that federal exception.

FEHA prohibits harassment because of sex, race, disability and other protected characteristics in workplaces of any size, under Government Code section 12940(j) and CRD’s employment guidance. You do not have to lose pay or a promotion to have a harassment claim. Firing or punishing you for opposing harassment is a separate violation under section 12940(h).

The CRD deadline is three years from the last time you were harmed

Government Code section 12960(e)(5) bars a FEHA complaint filed more than three years after the unlawful practice occurred. CRD’s complaint-process page says that in employment cases you must submit an intake form “within three years of the date you were last harmed.” For harassment that continued over months, the most recent incident tells you how much time is left; whether older incidents can be included is a question for counsel.

Under section 12960(b), filing means submitting the intake form, and the later verified complaint relates back to that date. CRD’s online system keeps an unfiled draft for only 30 days, so a saved draft is not a filing.

The statute’s extensions are narrow; two matter here. One allows up to 90 more days if you first learned the facts during the 90 days after the deadline expired; another gives a person harmed as a minor one year after turning 18. An internal HR investigation is not on the list; in our view, do not count on it to pause the deadline.

A federal EEOC charge runs on a shorter clock

Because California has an agency enforcing a similar law, the usual 180-day period becomes 300 days. The EEOC’s time-limits page says a harassment charge must be filed within 180 or 300 days of the last incident, and that the agency will still look at earlier incidents. It also says internal grievances, arbitration or mediation generally do not extend the deadline.

A CRD complaint alleging facts that would violate a law the EEOC enforces is ordinarily dual-filed with the EEOC, according to CRD’s employment FAQ. But if you request an immediate right-to-sue notice, CRD says it will not file your complaint with the EEOC, so a federal claim needs your own EEOC charge within the 300 days.

From CRD to court: the right-to-sue notice starts a one-year clock

To sue under FEHA, you first need a right-to-sue notice, either immediately or after a CRD investigation. CRD’s right-to-sue page says it advises the immediate route only if you have a lawyer, and you then have one year from the notice date to file. Choosing the immediate notice means CRD will not investigate your complaint, even if you later decide not to sue. For an ordinary individual complaint that CRD investigates, Government Code section 12965(c)(1) requires it to issue the notice on request once 150 days pass without a CRD lawsuit, and otherwise when its investigation ends, no later than one year after the complaint, subject to statutory tolling. The usual court deadline is one year from the notice; calendar the date printed on it.

Signed an arbitration agreement? Sexual harassment cases can stay in court

The federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 401–402, makes a predispute arbitration agreement unenforceable, at your election, for a case that relates to a sexual harassment or sexual assault dispute. It applies to disputes or claims that arose or accrued on or after March 3, 2022. A court, not an arbitrator, decides whether it applies, even if the agreement assigns that question to an arbitrator. Because it is your election, you may still choose arbitration.

On November 10, 2026, a divided Ninth Circuit panel held in Holland-Thielen v. SpaceX that the complaint need only assert that the conduct was sexual harassment under applicable law, without first pleading a harassment claim that would survive a motion to dismiss. A claim that you were fired for opposing alleged sexual harassment qualifies, and one qualifying claim keeps the whole case in court. That published decision binds federal courts in California; California state courts also apply the EFAA but are not bound by this decision. An employer can still move to dismiss; in the majority’s view, arbitration of the rest can return only if every claim premised on the sexual harassment dispute, retaliation included, is dismissed. Our analysis of Holland-Thielen explains the majority and dissent.

Harassment because of race, religion, disability or another characteristic other than sex is not itself covered. Without a sexual harassment or assault claim in the case, the agreement’s terms and other defenses decide the forum; with one, the whole case can stay in court.

What to save now

Keep the documents that decide your deadline and your forum, in their original form.

• Dates. The first and most recent incidents, any HR complaint and any discipline or firing that followed. The last incident sets the CRD and EEOC clocks; a firing after a complaint has its own date.
• The arbitration agreement. Keep the agreement, the onboarding acknowledgment and any handbook arbitration policy, with the dates you signed. The federal exception reaches only agreements signed before the dispute arose, and only disputes that arose or accrued on or after March 3, 2022, so both dates matter.
• Your complaint and the response. What you reported, to whom, when, and what the employer said or did. A retaliation claim, the kind that kept Holland-Thielen in court, starts with this record.
• Agency records. The CRD intake confirmation, complaint number, any right-to-sue notice and any EEOC charge receipt.

CRD also asks for witness names and documents such as reprimands, emails, texts and screenshots. Our guide to severe or pervasive harassment explains how to keep an incident log. Keep only records you can lawfully access.