How to Enforce Your USERRA Rights: DOL Complaint, Lawsuit, and What You Can Recover

By: Alex Meier  |  Last updated: October 2026

A service member whose USERRA rights were violated has two paths, and no obligation to pick the slower one. You may file a free complaint with the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS), which investigates and attempts resolution. 38 U.S.C. § 4322. Or you may skip the agency entirely and sue in federal court. 38 U.S.C. § 4323. After the 2025 Dole Act, the remedies for winning got substantially stronger. Lee Meier Burke, a Georgia employment firm, handles USERRA enforcement actions.

Path one: the VETS complaint

VETS accepts USERRA complaints from any person claiming a violation. The agency investigates at no cost to the service member and attempts to resolve the matter with the employer. If VETS cannot resolve the complaint, the claimant may ask VETS to refer the case to the Department of Justice, which may file suit on the claimant’s behalf against a private employer. (38 U.S.C. §§ 4322–4323.)

The VETS route has some benefits: it is free, it puts a federal agency between you and your employer, and a DOJ-filed case carries weight. Its main cost is time; investigations and referrals move at government speed, and DOJ takes only a subset of referred cases. 

Path two: straight to court

Unlike many federal employment statutes, USERRA does not have an administrative exhaustion requirement. Many employment claims require administrative exhaustion, meaning you must first present your claims to a federal agency to investigate them. By contrast, under USERRA, a service member may file suit in federal district court immediately, without ever contacting VETS. Claims against private employers proceed in federal court; claims against state employers follow different rules. Two features make USERRA litigation unusually accessible:

• No costs. No court costs may be charged to a person claiming rights under USERRA. (38 U.S.C. § 4323(h)(1).) That’s unusual because costs (but not attorneys’ fees) are ordinarily imposed against the losing party barring very unusual circumstances. 
• Mandatory attorney’s fees for prevailing claimants. The Dole Act changed the attorneys’ fee provision from discretionary to mandatory: courts now “shall” award reasonable attorney’s fees, expert witness fees, and litigation expenses to a prevailing claimant represented by counsel.

The burden-shifting standard

USERRA discrimination and retaliation claims use a two-step framework. The employee must show that military service or protected activity was a motivating factor in the employer’s action. The burden then shifts to the employer to prove it would have taken the same action anyway. (38 U.S.C. § 4311(c).) Reemployment claims are stricter still: eligibility is largely mechanical, and defenses such as changed circumstances or the five-year limit are the employer’s to prove.

What you can recover

Available remedies include:

• Reinstatement or instatement, including compliance with the escalator principle.
• Lost wages and benefits, including pension corrections.
• Liquidated damages for knowing violations. Before 2025, liquidated damages equaled lost wages and required a “willful” violation. The Dole Act, effective January 2, 2025, sets liquidated damages at the greater of $50,000 or the lost wages and benefits, and conditions them on proof that the employer “knowingly” failed to comply. The floor applies even where lost wages are small or zero, which transforms cases, like harassment or short suspensions, that previously carried little monetary exposure into cases with more exposure. 
• Interest. Courts may add up to 3 percent interest on back pay and lost benefits under the Dole Act amendments.
• Early injunctive relief. The Dole Act eased the standard for injunctions, and a court may no longer deny one solely because money damages will be available later. For a service member out of work, an early reinstatement order can matter more than the eventual judgment.

Retaliation for filing a complaint, testifying, or otherwise exercising USERRA rights is itself a violation, and after the Dole Act, prohibited retaliation extends to any retaliatory action, not just formal employment actions. (38 U.S.C. § 4311(b).)

The Georgia backstop

For service under state orders, such as Georgia National Guard state active duty, O.C.G.A. § 38-2-280 provides parallel reemployment protections enforceable in superior court, and the Georgia Attorney General may appear on behalf of the service member. Employees with mixed federal and state service should evaluate both statutes.

About Lee Meier Burke

Lee Meier Burke is a plaintiff-side labor and employment firm in Atlanta, Georgia, representing employees and executives in litigation and negotiation, including USERRA enforcement actions. Contact the firm to schedule a call.

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