Speaker 1: 0:20

Hey, it's Mark and I wanted to give you a quick discussion about consultations with our office. If you called Karen Associates PC, we do do paid consultations for about $400 for roughly half an hour. But you know, you know me, I'm long-winded and I talk a lot, so you may get more out of it because I go for an hour. That's pretty, you know, pretty darn well worth it. But I want you to understand, when you call for consultation or you're considering a consultation with our office, we're working to try to develop new ways to convey to you the importance of what we do and just being transparent. Why is a paid consultation worth it? That's the question and I'm going to give it to you straight and narrow. You're going to give it to you straight and narrow. You're going to be able to. Before the consultation with me, you're going to send me your detailed narrative of facts. You're going to send me your severance agreements, some other documents. I will attempt to read most, if not all, of the material before the call. So I'm spending more time before the call to understand the call with you, to maximize your time with me. So that's my time out of the day because I want the consultation to be informative. I want it to be far-reaching. I also want it to be productive and provide for process, provide for roadmapping what's going to happen, to give you the risks of what you're doing but also explain to you the benefit of proceeding in a case, potentially against your employer. I'll also warn you against the aspect of filing lawsuits and why they're like the least, the last resort thing you ever want to do. I'm going to pack that conversation so heavily that you're going to be pretty much overwhelmed by the time you get off the phone. You'll have a clear understanding of what you want to do, and that's my job is to get you to the end point to make a decision one way or another. And it's not influencing decision which way you go, it's simply, if there's no case there, I'm going to basically, you know, express to you there's not much we can do because I can't make up stuff, but usually when we have consults, we take them on. We know what we're getting into beforehand. We take a lot of notes before when the calls come in and we can decipher the quality of the case before the consultation. So I got a leg up before the call to make it more important for you. So when you're calling us for a consultation or deciding whether to do a consultation with our office, nine times out of 10, you'll be speaking directly with me and if not because of scheduling issues, I'll have someone else on the phone who's equally as qualified as myself to do the intake.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Because all we do here is employment law and everyone does the same thing in terms of trying to figure out you know how can we help you roadmap the case, figure out a solution and, most important I can't underestimate this to establish what is your goal. If you start this case Like, you, have to have that goal in mind ahead of time, and the easiest example is people want more severance pay because it's not enough. So, establishing what your goal, think about that before the consultation. We'll go through that and ask you specifically. Sometimes, just simply asking the question forces people to really reconcile. What is my goal.

Speaker 1: 3:35

I will dispense with an easy one of justice. You need to understand. Yes, we have an American justice system. The employment area is covered by the courts. Justice is equivalent to money in terms of what happens in these cases. So I need you to understand that the best that we can do and our system is not perfect, and I've had many judges say the same thing in front of my clients in private caucus sessions and mediation. You know an apology is helpful, but money is what does it, and typically that's what the goal should be is to you know, put you into a transaction which you benefit from, so you can have money to land in the next job and your economics are not screwed up because you lost income. So it's income replacement. So the goal is really important.

Speaker 1: 4:29

There is other implicit goals in the process of pursuing employers. I call the shaming goal, where you basically shame your employer, because your affidavit that you hear me talk about so much, the affidavit is really where we call out the employer through your narrative, your words. We obviously choreograph that in such a way that demonstrates the legality of the employer's behavior or illegality of that, and shames the bad actors and what they did, and so shaming is part of the process. Or you want to put it this way having your employer reconcile what they did against you. Whatever way you want to phrase it, I don't really care. But I'm going to pack that consultation in a way that moves you, moves you from point A to Z and you know how to do it and that's what I believe. I mean, I don't know what other people do, but you know if that's what I think consultation should be. So we're thinking about you, we're thinking about the consultation process and why you should do it. If you're considering it with our office, we're going to make it worthwhile for you.

Speaker 1: 5:38

It is a confidential discussion. You're talking with an attorney. It's attorney-client privileged. However, we don't retain you we're not your attorneys until you actually engage us in a written agreement. So you just need to understand that. But the conversation you're having is, in fact, privileged. We have no reason to tell anybody else about it. But it's designed just for you. And if your spouse wants to show up, their spouse can participate in that. If you have a family friend who's a lawyer, the lawyer can participate in the conversation if you need to. But outside of that group, the conversations between just us and yourself, because of the level of the attorney-client privilege, only flows so far. So again, a very impactful conversation designed to allow you to understand choices of options. And remember the first option you can always choose is do nothing. It's the cheapest. Consider that. I'll actually remind you of that. And the last option of filing lawsuits, I'll tell you stay away from it.

Speaker 1: 6:36

You don't want to pay legal fees to lawyers? Yeah, you heard from me. I'm a lawyer, but it's something you need to hear, because most lawyers don't tell people that. It's just a. Our job, ethically, is to put ourselves in your shoes to make decisions for you. If you had understood the law, that's what lawyers do. So one of the aspects is don't spend money on legal fees if you don't have to. You might want to spend money on legal fees. If you don't have to. You might want to spend them on college education or your mortgage. But working in a very conservative decision-making process is really what I guess I'm driving into the consultative process with you in that half hour to hour long conversation I'm having with you. That's what the consultation means to me and I want it to mean to you. So walk into it prepared, walk into it providing documents and information to us, and we will provide the feedback you're looking for to allow you to make the decisions one way or the other. Okay, just a few thoughts about consultations with our office. Enjoy, Take care.