Work Lawyer

Work lawyers will assist with wrongful termination, sexual harassment, unpaid wages, disability discrimination, religious discrimination at work, race discrimination, work injuries, and pregnancy discrimination.

You should hire our work attorneys opposed to our competition because:

1. We have been representing employees since 1993. When Firm Founder, Karl Gerber, started he was one of very few lawyers for employees.
2. Our main office has been in the same location since 1999 and we do not rent our building
3. We have handled more than 2,000 separate employee cases
4. We have represented more than 6,500 separate employees if you count all of the class members, Private Attorney General, and groups of employees we have obtained recovery for
5. Firm Founder, Karl Gerber, has won 51 of the binding arbitrations and jury trials he first-chaired
6. We have successfully represented many employees through appeals
7. We only represent employees and only do so on a contingency in which we advance costs

We work our cases. If you are looking for a quick settlement for a small amount of money we are not the right lawyers. We file our cases in court, or binding arbitration if required to do so. Only after obtaining information to prove an employment lawsuit do we engage in settlement discussions. If not enough money is offered we try our cases.

Examples of inadequate settlement offers include:

1. $4,000 offered at the EEOC for 2 sexually harassed women in the mid-1990s. $400,000 settlement day of trial in the mid-1990s
2. $10,000 offered to a pregnant woman who was wrongfully fired due to pregnancy. Received an arbitration award of approximately $137,000. Obtained $365,000 after trial and the employer lost the appeal.
3. What employers refer to as, "High 5-Figure Offers" meaning less than $100,000 but in the range of $80,000-$99,000 and then a result of $539,000 after winning a binding arbitration
4. $20,000 offer for same sex male on male sexual harassment and wrongful termination. Won the arbitration for $232,000
5. Offers of less than $20,000 on a case that had a $39,000 verdict and then the jury found punitive damage leading to a total payout of $300,000

The Employment Lawyers Group has offices in Bakersfield, Downtown Los Angeles, Ontario, Oxnard , Riverside, Sherman Oaks, Riverside, Torrance, and Tustin. None of our competition who claims they only represent employees have actual offices in all of these places

Employees need a work attorney if they have been unlawfully terminated, suffered serious harassment at work, had a work injury, or are owed a significant amount of wages. Work attorneys spend hundreds of hours on the average work lawsuit. It is not realistic to expect a lawyer will work on a contingency, hundreds of hours to recover hundreds of dollars. Employees must also be mindful not every workplace wrong is against the law, and not every case of discrimination can be proven. Personality conflicts and employee arguments do not merit an employee lawyer.

An experienced work attorney will guide employees onto the right path whether it is bringing a legal action, assisting an employee properly complain about a workplace practice, or determining if the employee has grounds for quitting and suing. When speaking to a work attorney it is important to listen, make the call when not distracted, and potentially take notes. There is a tremendous difference between laws and proof an employee might believe to exist, and how a professional work lawyer will look at the situation. An experienced employee attorney will try to guide the conversation towards all legally relevant points. This is because they know what matters, and where the legal violations and issues will be. Let the employment lawyer ask you the right questions to determine if you have an employment case.

Employee lawyers need to take charge of the interview, and proof of the case. Allow the employee attorney to speak to the actual employee. All too many times spouses, boy-friends, and girl-friends who want to help attempt to dominate the interview process. The actual employee is who will be questioned should a lawsuit get filed. Moreover, they know more about the employment problem than their spouse. We have seen hundreds of employees get through the legal process without having their spouses and significant others do the talking. Let us begin preparing the actual client how to answer questions about the legal matter. Allow us to satisfy ethical issues of attorney client privilege and taking direction from the actual client. Let the aggrieved employee speak to our labor lawyers.

CONTACT OUR WORK LAWYERS
at (661) 412-9600

Following the initial telephone call with the employee who has the workplace issue the work lawyer needs to set up an appointment to meet with the employee if there is a potential case. Only so much information should be transmitted before the employee has met with the employee lawyer. The appointment as well as the initial telephone call will not be billed by the hour. Work attorneys agree to meet employees because the employee is serious about hiring the employment attorney to take legal action against their employer. The initial telephone call and initial client meeting will take a few hours of the employee lawyer's time. Employee lawyers often perform preliminary research on the employer prior to the initial client meeting. The initial client meeting 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? Employee lawyers go out on a limb in agreeing to represent employees on a contingency. Give them the respect and time they deserve.

Following the initial client meeting decisions must be quickly made about whether to file a lawsuit against the employer. 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. Believe it or not determining the name of the actual employer and whether to sue a joint employer is an issue in most employment lawsuits. Make all attempts to find your paystubs and any documents the employer gave you so the employee lawyer can see, or find the legal names of your employer. 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 attorney 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 almost usually slower to start. 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. They can be asked questions about documents, and other issues. Deposition testimony can be read in court. During the discovery phase an experienced work attorney is able to foresee the employer's defenses, and the employee's methods of proving the case. Meaningful discovery is why good settlements, case results, 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.

1. $400,000 post-arbitration settlement in a case for off-the-clock work, meal, and rest breaks
2. $246,000 against an attorney who breached fiduciary duties he had to an employee suing for disability discrimination
3. A finding of punitive damages in a pregnancy harassment lawsuit and then a confidential settlement

*The results described in this article are only a few of our arbitration, jury, and appellate victories.
These results are a not a guarantee nor prediction of future outcomes