Lots of employees in California have signed an Arbitration agreement. But what is arbitration? In this video, Branigan answers several common questions that we get about this topic. What are the impacts of signing an arbitration contract? Can you avoid arbitration? If you signed an agreement, can you get out of it? If you can’t, is your case doomed?
Category Archives: Privacy
What is Arbitration and Why is it Bad for Employees?
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Filed under Abuse, Age, Defamation, Disability, Discrimination, Employment Contract, FEHA, Harassment, Health Care, Layoffs, Leave of Absence, Pregnancy, Privacy, Race, Religion, Retaliation, Settlements, Severance, Verdicts, Wage & Hour, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
How HR Screws Employees Out of Money, Employment Rights & their Jobs
“Human Resources is there to help the employees, right?” Nope. That is not true and it’s one of the biggest misconceptions in the employment world. HR is at your company to do one thing, protect the company when the human assets (i.e. employees) become a threat.
This is Mr. Robertson’s latest YouTube video about HR, and giving employees information that can help them navigate the complicated world of work. If something strange is happening to you at work, we recommend that you watch all of our videos about HR before you go to complain. Unfortunately, when some employees complain to HR incorrectly, they paint a big target on their back. Here are links to the other videos on HR:
We hope these are helpful.
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Filed under Abuse, Age, Defamation, Disability, Discrimination, Employment Contract, FEHA, Harassment, Health Care, Layoffs, Leave of Absence, Pregnancy, Privacy, Race, Religion, Retaliation, Wage & Hour, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
How to Save Text Messages from Your Boss or Co-workers for an Employment Lawsuit – Pt. 4
Should you save those scandalous text messages that you receive from your boss or co-workers? The answer is yes. This video and webpage is about how to do it properly so that if you have to take legal action down the road those text messages will help prove your case. Saving good documents, like emails and text messages, can mean the difference between losing your case, and winning millions of dollars in punitive damages.
This video is Part 4 in Branigan’s video series called, “How to Document Bad Behavior at Work.”
- Part One – “How to take Notes on Bad Behavior at Work“
- Part Two – “How to Save Work Emails for a Lawsuit”
- Part Three – “How to Save Company Documents for a Lawsuit“
This video series is especially important if you feel like your legal issues fall within one of the following categories:
If you would rather watch this video on YouTube, click here.
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Filed under Abuse, Age, Defamation, Disability, Discrimination, FEHA, Harassment, Health Care, Leave of Absence, Pregnancy, Privacy, Race, Religion, Retaliation, Settlements, Wage & Hour, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
How to Save Company Documents in Preparation for an Employment Lawsuit – Pt. 3
Mr. Robertson just released his latest video on how employees should save company documents while they are still employed. Employees should save these documents if they suspect something unlawful is happening at work and they want to protect themselves. This video covers when you should save documents, why it is helpful, what documents you should save, and how you should save them to avoid getting in trouble.
This video is Part 3 in the video series, “How to Document Bad Behavior at Work.”
- Part One – “How to take Notes on Bad Behavior at Work“
- Part Two – “How to Save Work Emails for a Lawsuit”
- Part Four – “How to Save Text Messages for a Lawsuit“
This video series is especially important if you feel like your legal issues fall within one of the following categories:
If you would rather watch this video on YouTube, click here.
Why Save Documents in the First Place?
Whether we’re talking about inappropriate text messages sent by the boss, emailed complaints sent to HR about an abusive coworker, or a performance evaluation containing inaccurate information about your work ethic, documentation simply makes your case stronger. It’s always better to show a jury that unlawful behavior took place rather than merely telling them.
When an employee has physical possession of important company documents, it becomes harder for unscrupulous employers to make evidence disappear. Strong documentation also has the power force the employer to the negotiating table more quickly.
When Should You Save Documents for a Potential Lawsuit?
For many of the folks who call our office every day, this is the key question. While there is no way to answer this question with 100 percent certainty, the decision to save documents for a potential lawsuit should be guided by the following three questions:
- Is what’s happening to you significant?
- Is it Impacting your job?
- Is it unlawful?
Number three in that list is particularly important. Remember, there is a lot of bad behavior that occurs in the workplace every day that unfortunately is perfectly legal.
For bad behavior to cross the line into unlawful behavior, very specific circumstances must occur. For instance, it is unlawful to discriminate or harass an employee because they are in a protected class (i.e., their race, gender, pregnancy status, religion, age, sexual orientation, national origin, military status, etc.). Unlawful discrimination or harassment can include the following:
- Vulgar racist jokes
- Unwanted touching or sexual advances
- Exclusion from staff meetings because the employee is pregnant.
Another area of unlawful behavior that employees need to consider is whistleblower retaliation. Generally, a whistleblower is someone who reports dangerous, unsafe or unlawful situations at work. The list of safety violations that occur in California workplaces is too vast to list in an article such as this but includes issues ranging from food preparation to operating room procedures (and many more in between). An employee who experiences retaliation after reporting discrimination or harassment of a coworker, might also want to consider saving documents for a potential lawsuit. For a deeper look at safety laws and whistleblower retaliation, be sure to check out this video.
What Documents Should You Save?
All too often when a potential client calls our office, they’ll tell us about all the solid evidence they have that makes their case a slam dunk. When we ask these potential clients to send over a few specific documents, we’re suddenly overwhelmed with a flood of emails and attachments containing all manner of documents— from barely legible screenshots to 20-page chronologies detailing every miniscule detail of the employee’s work life.
A simple rule of thumb to consider when trying to figure out which documents to save in preparation for a lawsuit is the following: save the essential documents. What are the essential documents? They include:
- Emailed or written complaints to HR (as well any responses or attachments)
- Any write-ups issued to you after you complained (potential retaliation)
- Negative and positive performance documents (write-ups, performance improvement plans, customer praise, Yelp reviews etc.).
- Any documents that show improvement.
-Any documents that show other employees are held to a different standard than you.This is only part of the discussion surrounding the types of documents to save in preparation for a lawsuit. For more discussion, be sure to check out Branigan’s video in its entirety.
How Should You Save Documents?
Before we get into the methods employees should use when saving company documents, there are a couple methods employees want to avoid. First, don’t send important company documents to a personal email account. This method makes it easy for the employer to track which documents are being saved. It also opens an employee’s personal email account to discovery later down the road. Trust us, you don’t want the company attorney sifting through your personal email account.
Employees will also want to avoid storing important documents on a company computer or any other company device. If the employer catches wind that you are preparing for a lawsuit, you might be locked out of the device immediately, thereby losing access to the documents.
Here are the best methods for saving important documents:
- Print them out, save them in a folder at home. By doing this you lower your risk of leaving a digital footprint.
- Set up a web-based email account (Gmail or Yahoo) that will remain separate from your personal account. Save the document as a PDF and forward to your individual account.
- Take pictures of the important documents with your cell phone. Obviously, this is not the best method as the resulting images can be pixelated making it hard for your attorney to read. It’s often difficult to keep hundreds of photos in chronological order.
- Keep a written log of the important documents. This method should only be done if you feel that any of the previous methods put you at too great a risk of being discovered by the employer. This method involves making a handwritten inventory of dates and documents you believe are important. Down the road, your attorney should be able to request these specific documents during discovery.
When To Call a Lawyer
Unfortunately, Branigan can’t represent most of the people who call our office. This is especially true for those who are still employed. That said, he does review cases for free. If you feel you are being treated unlawfully at work, give our office a call. Even if you haven’t been terminated, Branigan will review the basic facts of your case.
If Branigan believes you have a case, he might be able to represent you on a contingency basis. This means you won’t pay out-of-pocket expenses. In a contingency situation, Branigan is paid with a portion of the settlement or judgment at the conclusion of the case. Are you having significant problems with an employer or coworker? Give Branigan Robertson a call today and find out if he can help.
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Can an Attorney Save Your Job if You Have a Legal Issue?
We get calls all the time from folks who are still employed but they are facing a significant legal issue at work. Whether it is harassment, retaliation, or something else, folks want to know if a lawyer can step in and help them. We get this question so often that Mr. Robertson decided to make a video about it.
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What are the Legal Implications of Quitting Your Job?
What are the legal implications of quitting your job? Can you collect unemployment? Severance? What if you have a case and you quit (vs letting them fire you), will you still be able to take action? I answer all of those questions in this video.
My office gets a lot of calls from people who quit and still want to take action. This video details the critical things that lawyers look at in this situation.
How to Complain to Human Resources the Right Way
As with all things in life, making a complaint at work is a risk. If you complain to human resources the wrong way, you might get fired (it happens far more often than people think). That is why I took the time to make a video about the correct way to complain to HR.
This video will explain the five things you need to know before you complain about your issue at work. It also covers how HR will react to your complaint and what you should expect if they conduct an “investigation.”