Following an initial telephone call with the employee who has the workplace issue the work attorney will set up an appointment to meet with the employee if there is a potential case. The appointment as well as the initial telephone call will not be billed by the hour. Work lawyers agree to meet employees because the employee is serious about hiring the employment lawyer to take legal action against their employer. The initial telephone call and initial client meeting will take more than two hours of the employee lawyer’s time. They will most likely also involve the employee lawyer’s staff printing out, copying documentation concerning the situation, or their technical staff figuring out how to get text messages off a smart phone. What other high level professional will do all of this on the mere hopes they will be paid if money is collected from an employer?

Following the initial client meeting decisions must be quickly made about whether to file a lawsuit against the employers. Multiple statutes of limitation exist in most employee lawsuits. Determining when the statute of limitations begins and ends is not as simple as a mere date of a car accident. Again, employees need to let the work lawyer take charge, and utilize all of their particular knowledge about workplace lawsuits.

Once an employment lawsuit is filed a work lawyer needs to get the case going. Getting onto the path of proving a case depends on whether it is in arbitration or trial. Arbitration is slower. The parameters of arbitration can be a fight. The mere selection of an arbitrator takes time. Arbitration, in general, involves fewer discovery rights. Unfortunately many large employers these days require their employees to sign binding arbitration agreements. For these reasons a large portion of the Employment Lawyers Group’s caseload are arbitrations.

The meat of an employment lawsuit is the prove-up. The prove-up occurs during discovery. During discovery documents can be demanded and subpoenaed. Questions can be asked in the form of interrogatories. Depositions of witnesses can be taken in which they are required to testify under oath and answer questions about documents. During the discovery phase an experienced work lawyer is able to foresee the employer’s defenses, and the employee’s methods of proving the case. Meaningful discovery is why good settlements happen.

In order to get a decent settlement in an employee lawsuit, mediators almost always have to be used. Employment defense lawyers will usually not negotiate a meaningful settlement outside the presence of a mediator. The lawyers who represent employers are paid by the hour and prefer to charge the employer as much as they can before they recommend settlement. They are also afraid they will lose their client if they recommend a settlement. Mediators push employers in ways their lawyers will not. Almost always in settlement discussions there is a point where each side reaches their limits. Mediators bridge these gaps.

If the employment lawsuit does not settle at mediation, or the employer is unwilling to mediate the case will head towards a decision being made by a third-party. The arbitrator will decide the case if the employee signed an agreement to arbitrate their disputes with their employer when they were still employed by the employer. If a mandatory arbitration agreement does not exist the case will proceed to decision by a judge or jury.

The Employment Lawyer's Groups decisions before arbitrators and juries include:

1. $539,000 binding arbitration for disability discrimination and wrongful termination
2. $400,000 post-arbitration settlement in a case for off-the-clock work, meal, and rest breaks
3. $365,000 settlement for pregnancy discrimination and wrongful termination after a $282,000 verdict and then an appeal the employer lost
4. $300,000 settlement after a Downtown Los Angeles jury found the employer liable for wrongful termination and denied rest breaks, there was a $39,000 verdict, and a punitive damage phase was about to start
5. $246,000 against an attorney who breached fiduciary duties he had to an employee suing for disability discrimination
6. $232,000 in a binding arbitration of same sex sexual harassment and wrongful termination

These results are only a few of our recent results before arbitrators and juries. However, these results are a not a guarantee nor prediction of future outcomes