HOW TO GET AN EMPLOYMENT LAWYER

If your employer wronged you, and there is a legal violation an employment lawyer can sue for, there is a right and wrong way to get an employment lawyer. First, call the lawyer on the phone. Do not send an email, or get into a virtual chat. Employment lawyers are extremely busy, and they might not be the person receiving emails. 

Many emails are sent in mass to employee law firms throughout California. An experienced case screener will pick up on that. Unfortunately, however, in the real world of experienced employment attorneys screening for potential cases, clients typically have little idea what matters. Emails do not answer the questions that matter to  employment attorneys. In addition, as explained below a employee attorney ready to work on a contingency wants to find out as quickly as possible whether the potential client can engage in the sort of question and answer session required in the legal world of depositions and testimony.

CALL (818) 783-7300, DO IT RIGHT, AND INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF GETTING AN EMPLOYMENT LAWYER

SHUT UP AND LET THE EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY ASK THE QUESTIONS

This might sound mean, but it is the harsh truth. The real key to motivating an employment lawyer to take your case is to shut up and let them ask you the right questions. Any real law firm representing employees receives 5-100 calls a day from prospective clients. You have a limited amount of time to impress the employment lawyer that they can have a dialogue with you that will actually work in court. Workable dialogues include the employee lawyer asking questions that are relevant, and the suing employee directly answering their questions. That is how it works in arbitration, court, and depositions.

Winning an employment case is very much about being focused. It is also a lot about the employee being understood. Employees who trail off, jump from one invalid legal theory to another, and attempt to control the dialogue in legally irrelevant ways are acts nobody can follow. In court, irrelevant testimony is not allowed. The employee will become embarrassed if the judge admonishes them to merely answer the question asked. When it comes time for direct examination by the employee lawyer, clients who cannot answer the right questions will end up not being able to get the right testimony into evidence.

Arbitrators, judges, and juries may find that somebody who is not answering the questions in a straightforward manner is lying even if they can follow a random stream of facts being testified to. Experienced employee lawyers also know that if a client cannot answer the right question without telling their story from start to finish, complete with everything that does not matter in between, they will never be able to survive cross-examination. Yes, the other side is entitled to question you and if you don’t answer their question your answer can be stricken until you answer what it is they want to know.

COURTEOUS PEOPLE WIN LAWSUITS, HARSH, ABRUPT, INTERRUPTERS OF LAWYERS LOSE CASES

It is not the time to share your beliefs about the law, or AI research when trying to get an employment lawyer. You need a lawyer because you do not stand a chance in hell of winning a case against your employer, or receiving the kind of money an experienced employment lawyer will. Imagine how ridiculous it is to be firm that you know what is relevant, you know when there is a case, and you know which laws apply when you are talking to somebody who spent 3 years going to law school (after college, taking whatever tests are required to get into law school), a summer studying for the bar and then passing it, thousands if not tens of thousands of hours reading law after they passed the bar, and then spent their entire days Monday through Friday if not on the weekends also actually experiencing how the legal system works with all of the laws that might apply to your case. 

If you are able to get an employment lawyer on a contingency that is great. If you are able to get an employment lawyer who has actual trial experience and has won cases that is great. If you are able to get a highly experienced employment lawyer who has handled thousands of cases, you are really onto something. Do you think these people, if they are any good, are going to be picky about the cases they will take? Rude prospective clients who have no manners are not going to pass the test. Who needs them when there is somebody easier to deal with, and possibly more deserving. 

At the end of the day, arbitrators, judges, juries, and employee attorneys like clients who can follow directions. They also like people who let the lawyers do their jobs. When it comes time to determining whether somebody is entitled to anything let alone what, fact finders appreciate nice people. Clients who give their lawyers hell, attempt to control the legal dialogue, and are incoherent usually get the worse results.

Unless a prospective client is earning multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and are used to advancing five-figure money for costs for years just to do business for a single client, they do not appreciate the fact the employee lawyer will do the case on a contingency. What doctor works on a contingency and advances the costs of surgeries? Clients need to be thankful there is a high ranking professional out there to seek justice for the clients, at the contingency lawyer’s risk while that lawyer pours their heart and soul into the case for hundreds of hours. Don’t give the employment lawyer a reason to want to not represent you!

This article was written by Karl Gerber. He has done nothing but represent employees since 1993. He has handled over 2,000 separate cases, many cases with multiple employees, class actions, and PAGA actions involving large groups. He has tried many employment cases, and done appeals when need be. He has spoken to more than 200 potential clients some weeks, and  received thousands of emails in a month requesting representation. He can be contacted at (818) 783-7300