Are you searching for an experienced class action defense attorney and PAGA employer defense in California?  Plaintiffs attorneys are filing more class action lawsuits and  Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA lawsuits here in San Diego and across the State of California.  This has become a serious challenge for California employers and the number of cases have rapidly increased over the past few years.  Plaintiffs attorneys are actively seeking disgruntled current and former employees who might provide an opportunity to mount a significant legal action against companies of all sizes.

Most Important Things to Know about Class Action Defense and PAGA Employer Defense:

1. The best defense is a good offense – there are steps you can take to reduce your exposure to these types of lawsuits.
2. The key to these cases is fast, immediate action.  Call us for a free consultation at 858-535-1511.  There are always steps you can immediately take to mitigate or remediate potential damages.
3. The Watkins Firm has 40+ years of experience in class action defense, and we have proven strategies to protect your interests and achieve the best possible outcome in your case.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense!

There are a lot of steps you can take as an employer or business to reduce the likelihood of a class action lawsuit in California.  The Watkins Firm has 40+ years of experience serving the business, science and tech, real estate and medical / healthcare communities here in San Diego and across California.  Tightening up internal processes and important documents including transactional documents, the employee handbook, policies and procedures and even marketing materials can help to reduce or eliminate many risks in this area.  Our attorneys work with you to evaluate potential areas of risk, and develop strategies to help mitigate those risks in the future.

What Should You Do if You Are Threatened with a PAGA Action?

What should an employer do if you are threatened with a PAGA action or other employee-related dispute or lawsuit?  The most important action you can take is to immediately seek the advice and counsel of an experienced class action defense attorney and PAGA employer defense lawyer at the Watkins Firm.  Time in these cases really matters.  While you may have received an inquiry letter requesting information, payroll data, employee records or other information from an external group or law firm what they don’t tell you is that there is an important 30 day clock which is already running.  Once the 30 days pass the ability to resolve the issues at hand and defend any subsequent action become much more legally and financially challenging.

Take action.  We provide a substantive, free consultation for employers who have received these types of letters.  There are actions we can take together to substantially limit or eliminate altogether any exposure you may face as an employer. The goal of plaintiffs attorneys is to get to a position where they can legally and easily fan out within your organization as well as identify and contact former employees with immense powers of discovery.  We can help put a stop to that and resolve any genuine underlying dispute.

There may be a valid arbitration agreement in place which will be challenged by plaintiffs attorneys.  However, the Watkins Firm has more than 40 years of experience defending San Diego and California employers.  You need a Watkins Firm attorney to defend a Private Attorneys General Act Lawsuit and work to not only remediate genuine issues but mount substantial defenses which limit your exposure and prevent the case from moving forward.  Once the plaintiffs attorneys realize you have strong representation and they will not be achieving attorneys fees they often abandon their efforts altogether.

Pro-Tip: “The Private Attorneys General Act has been around for a long time. It is sort of a catch all.  If you want to, you can bring an action as if you were the Attorney General for the State of California on behalf of Californians and sue somebody. And it’s been used in a lot of different ways. It’s also been used in something called Qui Tam, which is a Latin term for “to bring in an action on behalf of other parties.” And that happens in different types of actions and these kind of actions are all around the United States. So they’re old and they’ve been used for different types of grievances throughout the history of the State of California. But right now they’re being used on behalf of employees. And when you do so you share some of the money with the State of California, and then you also get money for your clients and the state wins some money and they don’t have to pay their own Attorney General to do it. And also your clients get money and you get some more rights where as a regular class action might be more difficult for you to bring, but in a regular class action, you don’t have to pay the state.

We represent employers. So we’re always trying to do whatever we can to help our clients when it comes to this threat, which is active. And basically there’s a lot of plaintiff’s lawyers out there treating themselves as bounty hunters and going after these companies. And many of our clients didn’t realize this not only applies to their current employees, it also applies to former employees.  They just came out with a recent decision that says that they don’t have to even continue to work there, that they can still sue you and act as a class representative.

There are all kinds of rules and regulations on what they can’t do and what we can’t do in defending it and how we approach that. And every case is different and every settlement and every resolution is different. It’s a different kind of beast. The Judge gets involved. All the attorneys get involved. You have to make sure you’re fair to the people that are part of the class. So it’s very complicated and how you handle it in the beginning and throughout the case is important. You can’t just hire a lawyer to go out there and be really aggressive and expect a great result. All you’re going to end up with is a higher bill and higher risk, and nobody being scared away.

I think that failure to act immediately is the biggest risk. You get a claim, you get a letter, you get a notice and you don’t take action right away. That’s your opportunity to cure, fix and get out of the way of the PGA case. The lawyers who are hoping to Sue you don’t make any money if you act quickly, but if you delay and push back or ignore them, then they gain bigger rights and more motivation.

Everybody knows about class certification. You can’t have a class and you have, unless you have like people in a like situation that have suffered the same harm. And a lot of times plaintiff lawyers will try to group everyone together in hopes of getting the judge a certified, so that it’s assumed that everyone has suffered the same harm. And most employers don’t treat each employee the same. I mean, they’re all individually hired and contracted for. And sometimes the problems that are being alleged are not universal. So we want to fight that right away. And we also want to do our discovery and find out if everybody in the company wants to really join this class.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

An Experienced, Proven California Class Action Defense Attorney and PAGA Employer Defense Lawyer

Time is of the essence in these cases.  You need an experienced, proven California class action defense attorney and PAGA employer defense lawyer to defend any class action or Private Attorneys General Act Lawsuit in California. We have proven strategies and a substantial track record of success in these matters.  There are many strong lines of defense, safe harbor protections and remediation strategies which can protect your legal and financial interests while resolving the underlying dispute.  The goal is to prevent a PAGA action from progressing past the starting gate, prevent the certification of a class and to remove all incentive for plaintiffs attorneys to continue with the case.

We invite you to review our podcast Episode 18 – Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA, as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.