Negotiating with the company yourself after you've filed a charge

Filing a charge doesn't lock the door to talking — a pending charge is itself the pressure that can move a settlement.

What a pending charge changes

Before you filed, the company could tell itself you might never act. A docketed charge removes that comfort: there’s now a real proceeding, a response the employer has to prepare, and a record building. That shift in certainty is exactly why many matters settle after a charge is filed rather than before — the cost of the alternative just became concrete.

You can still negotiate directly

A charge doesn’t force everything through a formal process. You remain free to negotiate a resolution with the company on your own, and a settlement can be reached at any stage while the charge is pending. The agency may also offer mediation as a separate, voluntary option — but choosing not to use it doesn’t stop you from talking to the employer yourself.

Example: weeks after a charge is filed, the company’s position softens and it signals openness to resolving things — not out of a change of heart, but because preparing a position statement and facing an investigation has put a price on continued silence.

Where your leverage sits now

• The charge itself — a concrete, time-consuming matter the company must now answer.
• The record — anything the investigation might surface that the employer would rather keep contained.
• The clock and cost — the longer it runs, the more it costs them in attention and fees.

What to watch when you negotiate yourself

Keep communications factual and in writing where you can, and be careful what you characterize or concede — statements you make can surface later. Don’t let a settlement offer quietly pressure you into withdrawing the charge before anything is signed, and read any release the same way you would a severance agreement. Doing this entirely alone is where people give up value; the post-filing stage is a natural point to bring in help, which is what the next step, options after a right-to-sue letter, also speaks to.

How Thurgood works a pending charge

Thurgood’s Authorized Justice Practitioners work within exactly this process — representing workers on charges before the agencies and negotiating resolutions — so you don’t have to manage a pending charge and a settlement conversation by yourself.

Frequently asked questions