When It’s Time to Call Your Lawyer

No-one likes lawyers … until you need one.  Experienced and knowledgeable business managers are usually capable of handling basic employment issues.  Yet, laws governing the workplace tend to change frequently and companies can face formal complaints, liabilities and large attorney bills if significant employee disputes or decisions are not resolved early. Employers grappling with more complex or high stakes circumstances should contact an experienced employment attorney.

The trick is recognizing a potentially volatile situation before it blows up.  These include:

Disciplinary Investigations and Decisions:  Employers must act fairly and effectively in response to an accusation of wrongdoing. A company can face liability for failing to deal with a dishonest or destructive employee, just as it can for mistakenly concluding without an adequate inquiry that an innocent worker is guilty of such actions.  Equipped with the relevant information, an employment law attorney can help strike the proper balance and reach a just and reasonable decision, while management continues to maintain workplace productivity.

Threatened or Actual Court or Administrative Proceedings: If a current or former employee files or threatens to file any sort of lawsuit or complaint with a government agency, such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the California’s Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), it is certainly time to contact an employment attorney immediately. Charges of discrimination, harassment or wage and hour violations should be taken very seriously.  Mishandling any such worker allegations could create a further assertion of workplace retaliation.

Employee Contracts, Including Severance Agreements:  An experienced lawyer can create or review and strengthen employment-related agreements, including contracts at hiring or severance releases offered at termination. Poorly worded documents can create difficult and expensive disputes over interpretation later.

Workplace Policies and Handbooks:  Comprehensive and up-to-date written employee policies, commonly maintained in a manual or handbook, are the foundation for legally-sound business. Policies, distributed and read by employees, can be a critical “ounce of prevention” against claims over compensation, paid vacation and other benefits, workplace safety, acceptable employee conduct, the company’s ability to investigate into potentially private subject matters, and many other issues. An employment attorney can draft or review these policies and ensure they are current with applicable state and federal laws and regulations.

For more information, please contact one of our attorneys, Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth, or Helena Kobrin.

Tim Bowles

April 27, 2018