My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California

I've been trying to find an attorney to at least consult with due to issues at work. What I find is everyone I've contacted is looking for a fairly clear cut case. If my employer is in violation of discrimination against protected categories, is engaged in wage theft, or anything else that you might read on an advertisement, they'd be willing to help, but none have gone farther than screening for those clear violations.

At work I have a manager who hired his nephew, a clear violation of a rule in this municipality. Additionally, myself an others face severe discrimination and a hostile work environment and it seems that there should be something to do about this. The discrimination, however, is not over protected categories. The manager doesn't like certain people he manages he makes up stories about them, he makes fun of them, he does broach the protected categories sometimes. In a sense it is pervasive, he makes fun of black people, he talks about scratching his balls in front of women, he would call the pregnant black lady at work "the waddler" because her pregnancy made her walk weird. He's made up stories to try to get people fired. The main thing though is he discriminates against people if they are not loyal to him, partly because he has secrets to hide, like his relationship to his nephew. My favorite is after someone he didn't like cleaned up a bathroom, he peed all over it (lots and lots of pee). A perfect example of how he operates, when I approached him about the pee, he said he was a bad aim. That's all he needed to say, he's off the hook now. Its a weekly performance like that and its designed to make us miserable, and it works.

I went to Human Resources and bared all. I told them specifically that most of the problems started after the nephew was hired. The manager knows that no one is going to do a "family tree" background check, and it seems like he's right. HR has just sat on it, I inquired about an update and they said they'd get back to me.

This actually happened to me before about 17 years ago I worked for an employer, the manager hired her husband. I talked to HR and they acknowledged the relationship and that it was a violation and they did nothing about it. There's a good reason for that rule, it creates a permissive environment where its the family against the department. In that case the husband eventually became violent because employees wouldn't take orders from him directly (he wasn't a manager), and he got fired.

My point is, rules are being violated, it seems like there should be legal protection. However, no attorney seems interested when I go through the typical screening. Is this expected? Is it really a dead end to pursue legal options?