Posted on March 10th, 2015
OK so now you have the bad news.
You have just found out that you had a lawsuit filed against you by a current or former employee.
So first off I know that you might be feeling worried, scared or angry among many other emotions.
But just stop, pause for a minute, take a deep breath and realize that this is not the end of the world and if you follow the proper steps you and your business can get through this.
We have exclusively been defending California employers from employee lawsuits and claims for many years now and have helped hundreds of business owners get through the similar situations you find yourself in now.
Based off our experience in these matters, we put together for you the most important first steps you should take after finding out you have an employee claim against you or your business.
STEP ONE:
Review the Lawsuit –
Determine who is suing you, why they are suing you, what date you were served and how many days you have to file your answer. It is critical that you take notes of the most important details of the notice you receive.
Tip:
In a Superior Court action you have 30 days from the date you were served to respond. You do not want to miss any deadlines so you need to move fast! Unfortunately just ignoring the situation is not going to work and it will not go away by itself.
Warning:
Failure to file a response in time may result in a default judgement against you! This is why it is so important that you react quickly.
STEP TWO:
Gather all of the Records–
Make sure you immediately begin to gather all the information you have on the employee that filed the claim. Has this employee been written up before? Do you have any relevant emails or past employee records on this person? Now is the time to find all that.
Tip:
What we mean by records are documents, emails, time-cards, signed handbooks etc…anything that can help you. Put all the information into a file for easy access.
Warning:
If the person suing you still works for you do not confront them! This could lead to accusations of retaliation and make the situation even worse. It is unlawful to retaliate against an employee for filing a complaint against you or your business. If they can prove you did retaliate against them, this may be even a bigger problem than their original complaint.
STEP THREE:
Contact a legal professional for sound advice-
Contact a labor attorney who focuses on assisting only employers in these matters. Even if you feel its going to be expensive to involve a lawyer or you feel hopeless about the situation you still need to contact someone for advice. It may not be as bad as you think and again you cannot just ignore the situation. We offer a FREE 15 minute consultation to ANY California Employer with an employee issue. So you have nothing to lose. You will at least get an opinion from a professional for free and know what steps you need to do next.
Tip:
Labor is a very specific niche in law and a general attorney will probably not know all the details and strategies a full time labor attorney knows. Not only that, but the state of California has some of the most complicated and one sided (against employers) labor laws in the country. Depending on what city in California you are in you will have to deal with the city laws as well. Federal, state and city laws also constantly change and get updated so it makes it even more important to have someone who
Warning:
Most labor attorneys only focus on representing employees! We are the complete opposite. We focus our entire mission on defending the employers only. The reason why most lawyers in this state focus on the plaintiff side (employees) is because that is where the big money is. They want to win these potentially big rewards from employers (you). We believe that the State of California has become to one sided against employers and business owners so we never represent employees. We are on the side of entrepreneurs like you who have worked hard to make this states economy the 6th largest in the world, despite all the restrictive and prohibitive labor laws imposed on you.
If you would like more information we can offer you a FREE 15 Minute Consultation.
We only focus on protecting and defending California employers from employee issues and have helped hundreds of business owners just like you.
