Most people will spend a third of their life sleeping. Likewise, as incredible as it may sound, another third will be spent on work. Unpleasant, but true: For most of us, a third of our adult lives will be spent promoting our employer’s goals, which may or may not align with our own personal goals. In particular, if you are a long-term employee, when your employment situation becomes unpleasant, due to harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or pay problems, you may feel unusually upset, confused, and feeling strangely “off-balance.” If you think of a job as a kind of marriage, it’s no wonder that confusion at work can cause disruptions to your sense of well-being.
If you are currently dissatisfied with your job, recently quit, or were fired, it is by no means unusual. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median length of employment dropped from 9.2 years in 1983 to 4.1 years in 2008. A 2010 Metlife survey showed that approximately two in three employees plan to leave. their job at the end of the year, or they would quit their job if something better came along. A professor at the Wharton School of Economics suggests that this concern is actually explained by a 30-year trend in which employers have increasingly valued earnings over loyalty to their employees and have come to increasingly consider employees. used as disposables. Employee lawsuits have also become common. In California alone, employee harassment, discrimination and retaliation charges filed with the EEOC increased nearly 12% between 2009 and 2012, from 6,654 charges filed to 7,399.
Very few lawsuits that do go to trial, and of those that do go to trial, most plaintiffs don’t do as well as they hoped, and verdicts typically range from $ 10,000 to $ 99,000, not exactly a windfall.
In short, there seems to be less loyalty on both sides of the job equation, work seasons are getting shorter, more discrimination lawsuits are being filed, but 99% of them are not going to trial. Cases that end up in a courtroom generally get small verdicts.
With that in mind, what should you look for in an employment attorney? Here is a list of eight topics to consider for your first interview.
SUBJECT TO RAISE (OR NOT) WITH YOUR POTENTIAL LAWYER
1.) How well do you communicate? You don’t need your attorney to be your therapist, but you probably want someone who is easy to talk to (or has someone in your office to fill that role), easy to reach by phone, email, or text, and who will report regularly on what is happening with your case. It is probably unreasonable to expect your attorney to contact you every day, but once every two weeks is probably reasonable in a long-term representation, unless there is a lot of activity, in which case they may hear from you. or her, or an assistant, a few times a week. Find someone with computer and texting skills.
2.) Use of Private Investigator. A good investigator can dramatically increase the value of an employment case. A competent and licensed investigator will use computer database searches and personal interviews (by phone and in person) to obtain information about the individuals involved in the dispute. Ask your potential new attorney if they use an investigator and when that person will be included in the case. The sooner the better. By the time the complaint is filed, you don’t want there to be any surprises.
3.) Make a full disclosure. Relationships are built on trust, including in your relationship with your attorney. He / she needs to know that you have reported everything that is potentially relevant accurately and completely. So, for example, if your potential attorney asks if you’ve ever been convicted of a crime, and you have, say so; If your case is strong, the door will not be shown to you. If you have other legal problems, talk about them early. Don’t wait until your statement is about to be taken. Do not think that the secrets of your past will not come to light in a legal dispute because they probably will, and if you have not disclosed them to your lawyer before, you will lose control of their impact. You want your potential attorney to know all the “dirt” about you before anyone else, so they can work with the facts, not against them. The same goes for bankruptcies, other lawsuits, arrests, undocumented worker status, and other employment problems with previous employers. Your attorney cannot fully help you unless you fully disclose it. And conversely, if your potential attorney doesn’t ask you probing questions about your past, that could be a sign that he’s not a good fit for your needs.
4.) Try to settle early or litigate? There are good employment attorneys whose practice is to litigate first and settle later. There are good employment attorneys whose practice is to try to resolve first and litigate later. Both practices have their benefits and drawbacks, subject to a much longer article that would discuss the potential economic benefits of litigation versus the emotional cost. I think both practices are appropriate, depending on the facts and who you are. Litigation is unpleasant for everyone. You may feel like you are so emotionally beaten that you don’t want to fight anymore; you just want resolution. Or you may have deep and clear fantasies of seeing your adversary in a courtroom at trial. Whichever avenue you prefer, there is an attorney available for you. My only point here is that you should ask your potential attorney what percentage of their practice emphasizes early resolution (before a lawsuit is filed) versus litigation. In fact, it may be beneficial to ask an experienced trial attorney to attempt an early resolution of your case, because if he or she is well known in your area, it is also known that you are not afraid of a fight.
5.) Reasonable contingency fee. Practices vary, of course, but it is common for an employment attorney to charge a contingency fee, which is a percentage of your case if it is resolved, and nothing if your case is never resolved. It is also common for labor lawyers to collect 40% of the gross recovery and deduct that fee “from the cap”, that is, before other amounts are deducted. The costs are generally deducted after the rate calculation. That can also be negotiated. Apart from the representation of minors, for which the percentage of fees must be approved by a court, the percentage of attorneys’ fees can be freely negotiated between the parties. For pre-litigation (the time before a lawsuit is filed), in my opinion, a 40% fee is excessive. Before a lawsuit is filed, I recommend asking the attorney if they will accept 1/3 (33 1/3%) if your case is resolved before your lawsuit is filed.
6.) Ask about their strengths and weaknesses. Take “do I have a case?” one step further by asking your potential attorney, “As you see it, based on what I have told you so far, what do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of my case?” Both you and he / she should start practicing from the beginning to develop the strengths and minimize the weaknesses in your case. And each case has weaknesses. Your employer may be on the brink of bankruptcy. You may have received two years of questionable performance reviews that cannot be linked to a claim of retaliation. Your employer may have received another complaint about the person you are complaining about. You may have resigned and never said anything about being harassed. These are all potential events that will affect the strength or weakness of your case. So ask up front: “Tell me the truth. What is good and what is bad here?”
7.) Go Armed by Bear. If you really want to impress your potential attorney, bring to the meeting a list of people who have agreed to speak to him or her about what happened to you at work, along with their phone numbers. Insightful witnesses, as these people are called, are invaluable to a case. Anyone who can corroborate what he claims is helpful. Anyone who has had an experience very similar to yours with that particular co-worker, supervisor, or employer is an asset.
8. Don’t ask “How much is my case worth?” A good lawyer won’t tell you. An experienced attorney may not know from the first meeting what your case is worth, and you put him in a difficult position by asking. Several years ago a case came to my office that initially appeared to have a liquidation value of around one hundred thousand dollars; and settled for nearly $ 4 million two years later, after all the heinous events had surfaced. On the other hand, I have had cases that I initially thought were worth seven figures were reduced in value as the facts emerged. The value is subjective and depends on the facts. So if you ask how much your case is worth, your prospective attorney might honestly say something like, “It depends!”