The term wrongful termination can be deceiving. What the average person may consider to be wrongful termination may not necessarily be illegal according to the law. Many people believe that unfair terminations are also wrongful terminations, which can support a lawsuit, but this is incorrect. On the other hand, the average employee who is terminated for an illegal reason does not know that their employer terminated them in violation of law, unless they speak to an attorney. The law protects employees from termination for many reasons, and most lay persons are not aware of all the potential reasons for a termination that are illegal. Beyond this, employers generally attempt to cover-up the illegal reason for a termination, because they are worried about a lawsuit, but experienced wrongful termination lawyers Los Angeles, California know how to uncover facts to prove a case in spite of the employer cover-up. If you have any concerns that you may have been a victim of wrongful termination in Los Angeles, you should always contact an attorney who is experienced and knowledgeable in this area of law.
An experienced wrongful termination lawyer Los Angeles, California should be able to tell you what actually constitutes an illegal termination, and what may not be illegal but just be unfair. Most good employment attorneys speak to several terminated employees before they find one who has a reasonable chance at prevailing in a lawsuit. In order for an attorney to properly analyze a case, to determine whether there has been an illegal termination, the attorney needs to be apprised of what happened through an interview process. To find clients, most wrongful termination attorneys have legal assistants gather facts from the terminated employee through an initial telephonic interview, and then those facts are presented to an attorney. If it appears to the attorney there may be a potential case, then the employee is scheduled for an in person meeting with the attorney. When the employee meets with the attorney he/she should bring all documents in their possession, which are related to their former employment. Typically documents that employees have in their possession include employee handbooks, performance evaluations, write-ups, check stubs, W-2s, termination letter, doctor’s notes, written communications with former employer to include e-mails or letters, as well as other types of documents depending on the job. The employee should bring all their documents to the meeting with the attorney, so their case can be properly evaluated.
Employees should always be 100% truthful with an attorney who is accessing their case. The worst mistake an employee can make in having their case evaluated is lying to the attorney interviewing them about their case. An employment attorney must know all the facts, good and bad, in order to properly access the case. Furthermore, a good attorney will develop a strategy as to how to deal with “bad facts” in a case, but can only do so if he is made aware of them by his client. Additionally, because most employees have so many misconceptions about their rights and the law, they are not capable of determining by themselves what is a “bad fact” in their case. Clients who mislead their own attorneys are wasting everybody’s time to include their own.
Remember, you probably have many misconceptions about employment law and your rights, because corporations generally want their employees to stay ignorant about their rights. California law requires employers to inform employees about some of their rights, but most corporations do little more to inform their employees of their rights beyond what the law requires, if that. Corporations propagandize the public though the media and politicians about the myth of the frivolous lawsuit to try and get legislatures and courts to limit employee’s rights to bring a lawsuit. Much corporate propaganda about the myth of the frivolous lawsuit is meant to deceive employees into agreeing with legislatures and courts who limit their ability to bring lawsuits when their rights have been denied. The fact is if there were frivolous lawsuits being filed they would be dismissed, and the attorney who brought such a lawsuit could be sanctioned. The fact is that a plaintiff’s employment attorney cannot afford to take a case on a contingency basis that is frivolous, because he/she would lose money. However, good wrongful termination cases can be very valuable. Many employees who have been terminated for an illegal reason initially say they do not want to file a lawsuit until they find out their case may worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is common for the best wrongful termination lawyers Los Angeles to settle their client’s cases in the six figures, and for jury verdicts in wrongful termination cases to be in the seven figures. Check to see if the employment law firm you are considering publishes examples of their results before retaining them.
When you meet with the attorneys to evaluate your case, you should also be evaluating the attorneys to determine if they are experienced and knowledgeable enough to represent you. Don’t be embarrassed to ask questions about the attorneys past track record in representing employees. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad attorneys who will take your money and do nothing for you. Be wary of attorneys who charge you money up front before getting you any money, or who want a large consultation fee just to tell you whether you have a case. Attorneys who take cases on a contingency basis have aligned interests with their clients because the attorney’s fee is contingent upon the client making money. Moreover, most contingency arrangements are based upon the attorney being paid from a percentage of what the client receives for the lawsuit, so the attorney’s motivation is to get their client as much money as possible. Additionally, most persons who have just been terminated do not have money to hire an attorney, so find an attorney who will take your case asking no money up front, and will only get paid for his/her services once he gets you money. When there is a wrongful termination in Los Angeles the most important decision the employee will make is choosing the employment law firm that will represent them, because choosing poorly will likely cost them large amounts of money.