Before thinking about the lawsuit process, you will need to assess an important aspect – are you allowed to sue your employer in the first place?
Believe us when we tell you that many people want to sue their employers every day – but – the truth is that they don’t have any legal basis to do it.
The thing is that to be able to bring a lawsuit against your employer; your employer actually has to break the law first. Lawyers can do all sorts of seemingly unfair things without actually breaking the law.
The first step in the process of legally suing your employer is to determine whether or not your employer has actually broken the law. For instance, you can sue your employer if you have been fired or terminated from your job due to your protected characteristics, including your race, gender, age, religion – or – disability status.
Similarly, the termination of an employee who made a complaint about discrimination or harassment on the basis of protected characteristics can be challenged in court as well. Terminating an employee as retaliation for taking pregnancy or medical leaves can also be challenged in court.
If your employer has sabotaged your life and you have sustained a personal injury; as a result, you will want to immediately seek the support and advice of a professional lawyer, such as a personal injury lawyer from the DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC and take matters to court.
The examples mentioned above fall into the illegal employment practices that employers sometimes engage in. You get the point – you will want to be absolutely sure that your employer has indeed broken the law, violated your protected rights, and did you wrong before you proceed to sue your employer.
Hire a Lawyer
Suppose you have a viable legal claim – in which case – your next step would be to hire a lawyer. You will need to get in touch with employment lawyers in your state who actually represent employees. If you have sustained a personal injury, you will want to contact a personal injury lawyer.
But – if you want to simply sue your employer, you will want to get in touch with an employment lawyer who represents employees – and not the one who represents employers. When you visit a lawyer, the first person that you are more likely to talk to is an intake person.
You will have to give a brief overview of facts to the intake person, and if you do indeed have a vital legal claim – you will probably get a call back from a lawyer. The kind of lawyers who represent employees generally work on a contingency basis.
In case you don’t know what this is – a contingency basis means that the lawyers will only get paid from the financial amount that they recover from you. They don’t get paid if they don’t recover anything in the court for you.
This aspect indicates that the majority of employment lawyers who work on a contingency basis – usually only take good cases where they have a chance to win the case for you. Nonetheless, you wouldn’t want to get discouraged if a few lawyers pass up on your case.
Sometimes, lawyers are genuinely busy and unable to take on new cases – but – if you talk to more than ten lawyers and no one wants to take your case – there is a great chance that something is wrong with your case.
After you have hired a lawyer, the lawyer will investigate your case. The professional legal expert will go through the facts of your case in great detail. The lawyer will ask for any potential documents or notes that you have, including a timeline.
A timeline is a detailed chronological summary of everything that has happened leading to the point of legal action from your side. At this point, you and your lawyer will have a few long rounds of conversation and email discussions about everything that happened to you.
Demand Letters Are Helpful
A demand letter is a letter that the lawyer will send out before filing the lawsuit and provide both parties with an opportunity to settle early on – before anyone has uncured any costs. The demand letter will spell out exactly how they broke the law for the defendant.
The demand letter will also incorporate the employer’s legal liability because of their violation. Usually, the demand letter will conclude with a settlement offer which will basically ask your employer to pay compensation to you, and you will drop the lawsuit.
Generally, in response, the defendants make some offer to settle things before they reach the courtroom – but – their offer is typically much lower than the demand, and the parties can go back and forth while negotiating the settlement amount and perhaps come to terms.
Nonetheless, more often than not – the defendant’s offer is more likely to be insufficient, which might cause you to proceed with filing the lawsuit.
Even if you have to proceed to file the lawsuit, you can learn valuable things from the demand letter. For instance, the conversation that occurs after you have sent the demand letter to your employer can provide you valuable insight into the employer’s defenses.
If your employer has some really strong defense or something else that utterly defeats your claim, then the defendant will let you know that as soon as they receive the demand letter. So, the demand letter process is a great way of seeing whether or not there are any giant land mines that you are about to step on.
After the demand letter, you will initiate the lawsuit, where your lawyer will draft a summons and complaint and serve it on the defendant. The complaint document looks a lot like the demand letter and includes exactly what the defendant did to you and how their conduct violated the law.
The summons document states that the defendant is being sued and must answer the complaint and appear in court. The lawyer will also then go to the courthouse and file these documents with the court along with proof of service.
In some cases, it’s necessary to take legal action against your employer. Such a decision should not be taken lightly and all of the potentially involved parties should seek advice from a legal professional before seeking any legal action.
The first step to suing your employer is to understand the grounds of the lawsuit. The types of situations where an employee may have grounds for a lawsuit are discrimination (such as gender, age, and race), breach of contract, and wrongful termination. Employees may also have grounds for a lawsuit if their employer has infringed their rights as outlined in state and federal labor laws.
In order to sue your employer, it’s important to identify any available evidence to support your claim. This evidence can include emails, contracts, and other documents. If you can present your case effectively and demonstrate a pattern of misconduct, your odds of success may be improved.
Before filing a lawsuit against your employer, consult with a lawyer. Laws governing labor lawsuits differ from state to state, so it’s important to have a lawyer knowledgeable in the relevant area who can guide you through the process. Additionally, your lawyer can help determine whether it’s better to use informal negotiations or bring the case straight to court.
When filing a lawsuit, it’s important to be aware of the potential risks. Depending on the outcome of the lawsuit, you may face financial penalties, or additional penalties such as the inability to find employment in your industry again. But despite these risks, it’s necessary for some individuals to sue their employers. After all, you should have to work in a safe and healthy environment regardless of what industry you work in and your employer shouldn’t unlawfully discriminate against you.
Ultimately, suing your employer is a serious decision. It’s not one to be taken lightly and should only be done if there’s a strong legal case that a lawsuit is warranted. Being aware of the related laws, seeking the advice of a legal professional, and understanding the risks involved are key to successfully suing your employer.
