Negotiation First And Why

The Hidden Cost Of Filing

Documentation That Wins Cases

Why AI Can Hurt Your Case

Short Deadlines And Agency Filings

Using Publicity As Leverage

Settlements And Neutral References

Get Help Before You File

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey, it's Mark and welcome back to the next edition of the Employer's Survival Guide. Today, employment lawsuit. When it makes sense and when it doesn't. Most employees think filing an employment lawsuit is the first step, but as you know, I believe it's actually the last step. The smart play is almost always negotiation first. I do believe in negotiation, I do believe in mediation. And if you're trying to target severance, it's really important to avoid lawsuits. They are expensive. But when your rights have been violated, like say discrimination, retaliation, or wage theft, whistleblower issues, there's a variety of claims you can have. An employment lawsuit can be the only way to get justice in real money. As you know, I have filed hundreds of these over my career. For me, it's just a tool. For you, it's a freakout. It's probably the worst case scenario for you. I like to try to keep clients out of lawsuits, especially number one, because Google will pick your name up and it will never go away. That lawsuit will always be there. And we tell people that. About 80% of the time, employers will resolve cases with you and you can avoid the lawsuit. 20% of the time, employers will double down and try to force you to file a suit. I have several of these I'm thinking about right now. I don't know why they don't resolve. They're really good cases. Yet the employer just wants to be a pain in the ass to the client. It's not uncommon. That's probably why I have hundreds of lawsuits over the years. Because I'm trying to negotiate if I can early on before the lawsuit, but eventually we have to file them because that's what we're doing. We set these cases up for filing. Well, here's what we tell everybody every client strong documentation wins cases, weak documentation loses them. And what do I mean by that? I always say to people, draft your affidavit, your chronological statement of facts from every source you can gather, do it offline, do it early, way before you even contact me, because you're going to capture contemporaneous information, things that happen every single day, notes. So definitely strong documentation. People will say, you know, I didn't record something. Or in some states you can record. Check your states in terms of the consent rules regarding recording. Preserve all your documents, including the recording, and use them as part of your affidavit effect, because we're going to have you make one. Very long. Weak documentation. Well, what I don't want to have is a case that's presented to me using an AI device. We're in the era of AI, but when you do that, when you use AI, throw it into your chat, your information, that information is now public information because you shared it with a third party. And so we actually won't represent people who use AI during our representation. We have our own AI. It's a sandbox. It's called a sandbox for a reason because it has borders and it's not shared externally outside of the office. And that's where we use the facts, the documents, et cetera, we put together on behalf of our clients. So weak documentation using AI, fabrication, et cetera, don't do that. Number two, statutes limitations are short generally, 180 days to 300 days for many federal claims and state claims. Don't wait. When do you measure the end cutoff date? Well, the last adverse action that happened to you, a denial of promotion, denial of wages, whatever it be, you have to look at the statute limitations for when something happened and when you can move on your claims to file at an agency level. Remember, filing in agency levels, both state and federal, is designed to preserve your rights. We do that every single day for people to advise them to file agency actions just to check the box, preserve it. We don't spend any time and energy in the agency. We don't believe that the agencies really benefit you, the employee. You don't want to waste your money there. Number three, employers hate bad publicity in jury trials. That's your leverage. I can say that's a hundred percent certainty that employers hate when people find employment lawyers like myself and present cases to them using that long affidavit format that I use to expose everything factually about what happened to the case, including things that factually don't really support the claims the employee had, but are really embarrassing. I believe in trying to shame employers to do the right thing. You know, they they know what they're doing. And that's the thing you need to remember. That affidavit we produce to the employer, well, it basically calls them out on it, on their bad behavior. You have to understand something. Employers run the risk that you're not going to do something. They use fear and intimidation to try to get what they want. And our job is essentially to say, stop. You can't do that any longer, and protect the employee and use an affidavit of fact and claims to essentially negotiate. We can preserve employment for a long time as well. I think my record is about two and a half years to three years of preserved employment. You can file as many claims as you want to with agencies on a good faith basis. Employers are reluctant not to fire you because it's a quick win for employee. It's called a retaliation claim. Most cases do settle. I said it before. The goal is usually a confidential settlement agreement with money and a neutral reference. Most employers, I said this years ago, they want the settlement agreement with you more than you want the money. And you don't know that because no one tells you that. So that's that's what the whole purpose of this podcast is for. So most cases do settle. It's about an 80-20 rule, and we design cases to help them resolve quickly. They're also designed for litigation purposes, because that's what we have to do. They're fully investigated, uh, they're fully briefed, they're ready to go, their complaints are ready to go. And if the parties decide to settle, that's the party's choice. So the truth, your employer won't say, they settle strong cases quietly because they know what a jury would do. And that's true. You really, if I could publicly share all the wonderful, outstanding cases I remember my entire career, I can't, because there are settlement agreements that bind them. And there are some pretty fabulous cases that I've been involved with over the years, some pretty outrageous cases. But those good cases resolve themselves. The weak cases, well, we call them borderline cases, where employers fight and drag at you through the ditches and spend money. That does happen about 20% of the time. So before you file anything, get employee legal help from someone like myself, who represents only employees, and we'll tell you in one conversation whether you have a real case and what it's worth potentially. If you need more information, contact our firm at capclaw.com. And as always, thank you for letting me be a service.