What Should You Do if You Get Injured at Work? – Pt. 4

This video is about what employees should do if they get injured on the job. How do you protect yourself from the consequences of a workplace injury. Should you report it? Should you file a workers compensation claim? Should you request a reasonable accommodation? Mr. Robertson answers all of these questions.

Unsafe Work Places that Lead to Injuries

As you all know, people get hurt on the job. Usually this is due to an unsafe work environment or condition that has been neglected for a long time. If you find yourself injured from something at work, what should you do about it? You should watch the following videos as this is Part 4 of a four-part series that Mr. Robertson made on workplace safety.

Once Mr. Robertson finishes filming each video, he will come back to this post and insert a link so you can easily jump to the video that is most helpful for you. But you should watch them in order as each one lays a foundation that is key to understanding the next one.

We hope you find this information useful!

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How to Get a $1,000,000 Settlement – Video

In this vide Mr. Robertson demystifies seven figure settlements. How do lawyers get them for clients? What goes into getting them? Mr. Robertson analyzes the seven major factors that go into getting big-money settlements for clients.

How to Get a Seven-Figure Settlement

Have you ever wondered how people get millions of dollars in a settlement from their lawsuit? This video breaks down the seven major factors that contribute to settlements that size and larger. Mr. Robertson discusses the hard work that is required and the risks that you and the attorney must take. So, if you’ve ever wanted to peek behind the legal curtain, watch this video.

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Retaliation for Reporting an Unsafe Work Environment – Pt. 3

This post discusses what employees should do if they are being retaliated against for complaining about a safety issue at work. It also describes how much safety lawsuits like this can be worth in Court. Attorney Branigan Robertson carefully analyzes the anti-retaliation laws that protect workers and explains what retaliation looks like in the real world.

Retaliation for Safety Violations is a Big Problem

Unfortunately, if you get hurt on the job, you create a big problem for the company. And the sad reality is, some companies choose to treat their employees like replaceable widgets and they will not tolerate when one tries to stand up for safety. Retaliation because of safety concerns is a big problem in California, and Mr. Robertson wants people to know their rights and when they should call a lawyer.

This is Part 3 of a four part series that Mr. Robertson is making on workplace safety.

Once Mr. Robertson finishes filming each video, he will come back to this post and insert a link so you can easily jump to the video that is most helpful for you. But you should watch them in order as each one lays a foundation that is key to understanding the next one.

We hope you find this information useful!

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How to Report Safety Violations – Pt. 2

This post details how employees should report safety issues and violations at work. This is the next installment in our video series called “Employee Safety at Work.” In this post and video, Branigan Robertson describes the correct way to report safety violations to bosses, HR, and OSHA.

Blowing the Whistle on Workplace Safety

If you are smart, you probably already know that reporting a safety issue is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” kind of dilemma. If you report the safety violation, chances are your company is going to be upset and might retaliate against you. But if you don’t report the unsafe situation, chances are the company will blame and scapegoat you if someone gets hurt because you knew about the situation and didn’t report it.

This is Part 2 of a four part series that Mr. Robertson is making on workplace safety.

Once Mr. Robertson finishes filming each video, he will come back to this post and insert a link so you can easily jump to the video that is most helpful for you. But you should watch them in order as each one lays a foundation that is key to understanding the next one.

We hope you find this information useful!

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The Laws of Workplace Safety – Pt. 1

This page details the California laws that keep employees safe at work. If you want to know the basics regarding Cal-OSHA regulations that apply to your job, this post will give you the details that you are looking for. The above video was created by California employment lawyer, Branigan Robertson. You can watch it on this page, or click here to view it on YouTube.

This is Part 1 of a four-part series that Mr. Robertson made on workplace safety.

Once Mr. Robertson finishes filming each video, he will come back to this post and insert a link so you can jump to the video that is most helpful for you. But you should watch them in order as each one lays a foundation that is key to understanding the next one.

We Will Answer the Following Questions:

These videos are made to answer the seven most common questions lawyers get about workplace safety, including the following:

  1. What laws protect the safety of workers?
  2. What are your rights if your employer is breaking OSHA’s laws?
  3. How should you report unsafe conditions?
  4. Who do you report to: HR, your boss, or OSHA?
  5. How much money can you win if you get fired for reporting safety violations?
  6. What happens if you get hurt on the job?
  7. How do you get compensated for the time off work following an injury?

Stay tuned for more information!

Workplace Safety, The Big Picture

In the early days of the American workplace there were precious few laws in place to protect the health and safety of employees. If an employee died in a workplace accident, the employer simply hired a replacement worker and moved on. Thankfully, things are different today. In 1970 the Federal Government passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), which established workplace protections for employees nationwide. States like California added additional safety regulations to the federal regulations (hence Cal-OSHA). The basic directives underpinning OSHA are known as the General Duties. These include:

  1. Every employer is legally required to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm to its employees.
  2. Every employer is legally obligated to comply with OSHA safety standards set forth by the Secretary of Labor (29USC §59(a)).

Cal-OSHA General Duties take things further and provide more specific protections for California employees. These duties include the following:

  1. Every employer is obligated to furnish safe & healthful employment to its workers.
  2. Employers must do everything reasonably necessary to protect the life, safety, and health of employees.
  3. Employers shall use safety devices and use methods reasonably adequate to render employment safe.

Employers are not allowed to require an employee to go to an unsafe workplace (CA Labor Code §§6400-6404).

What Types of Safety Is Covered

OSHA regulations primarily seek to prevent physical workplace injuries. OSHA does not seek to directly regulate psychological safety stemming from bullying and harassment.  There will be more discussion on psychological safety later in this series, but you can view Branigan’s video on on workplace bullying and harassment if you feel this might address your issue more specifically.

OSHA does regulate issues related to physical workplace violence. Employees who experience or are aware of occurrences of workplace violence should notify their employer about potential physical violence.

Safety for All Industries

OSHA regulations were designed to cover all industries—from small startups space to sprawling factories. And whether you work at a desk or operate a milling machine, your employer must provide some basic safety considerations. These include:

  • Disaster planning (alarm systems, escape routes, emergency procedure, etc.)
  • Personal protective equipment
  • Ergonomic equipment
  • Hazardous substance disclosure 
  • Maintaining a smoke free environment (no tobacco products)Heat mitigation (we get a lot of calls about office heat issues)

Safety for Specific Industries & Activities

OSHA provides regulations for a vast range of specific industries. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to publish the complete list in this post—it could cover a novel sized tome. Suffice it to say OSHA has rules for just about any industry or activity you can imagine. If you work in an industry where you think safety violations might be occurring, you can always spend a little time reviewing information on your specific industry on OSHA’s website. Activities and equipment effected by OSHA regulations include: 

  • Ladders
  • Stairways
  • Power tools
  • Forklifts
  • Sanitation
  • Fire Extinguishers
  • Toxic substance handling and disposal (lead, asbestos, chemicals, aerosols, etc.)
  • Ventilation
  • Textiles
  • WoodworkingMany others

What Are Your Rights in an Unsafe Environment?

This series on workplace safety will get deeper into employee rights in subsequent videos and blog posts. But employees have the right to the following:

  • To refuse to do unsafe work. This right exists if two conditions are met. First, the work being requested would violate OSHA regulation (such as the General Duties). Secondly, the violation would create a real hazard to you or your coworkers.
  • To report violations to the proper authority without fear of retaliation.
  • To receive written information on hazards at the workplace.

When the Employer Doesn’t Follow the General Duties

Our office fields thousands of calls every year from folks who believe their employers are violating safety laws. These callers are eager to get justice, and they are eager to sue. In some cases, they let their emotions get the better of them and end up making a bad situation worse.  We must explain that there are a few things that must happen before a lawsuit can be considered—and a single safety violation often isn’t enough. It’s important that you continue watching this video series to get a broader picture of what it takes to hold an unsafe employer accountable.

When to Call an Attorney

If you believe that your employer has violated Cal-OSHA regulations, or if you have been terminated after reporting safety violations, call our office. Branigan does not charge for the consultation process. If he determines that you have a case worth pursuing, he generally represents clients on a contingency basis.  This means the client pays for his services from a portion of the settlement or judgment at the conclusion of the case. 

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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.”

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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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.”

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:

  1. Is what’s happening to you significant?
  2. Is it Impacting your job?
  3. 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:

  1. Print them out, save them in a folder at home. By doing this you lower your risk of leaving a digital footprint.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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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