The Watkins Firm has decades of experience working to defend a San Diego employer in PAGA and wage actions.  The Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA is one of the greatest risks to San Diego area employers.  PAGA allows an employee to literally step into the shoes of the California Attorney General, acting as a “proxy” on their behalf and receive a portion of all the resulting revenues generated for the State of California.

Plaintiffs attorneys are actively cultivating a single employee from a San Diego business entity with a gripe or genuine legal issue.  They then use this single disgruntled employee as a “wedge” into your company, expanding the issue at hand from a single person to a class action lawsuit.  PAGA actions can allow the legal process to bypass arbitration agreements within your company’s employment agreements in order to pursue civil penalties.

The process to successfully defend a San Diego employer in PAGA and wage actions requires extensive experience and legal skill.  The provisions of the Private Attorneys General Act cover all facets of California labor law including wage and hour actions, health and safety violations, misclassification of 1099 workers or independent contractors and even unfair competition allegations.

Our proven attorneys have several strategies to reduce or eliminate your exposure to the financial penalties associated with a PAGA lawsuit or class action.  There are legal strategies which allow us to “cure” the underlying issue and respond on behalf of our clients through an administrative law procedure.  It is not only important to contain the PAGA action itself but to limit exposure to and the extent of plaintiff’s fees.

It is possible to prevent exposure to PAGA actions from the outset through effective employee handbooks, policies and procedures and documentation.  However, whenever we defend a San Diego employer in PAGA and wage actions we work quickly to resolve exposures and limit the potential for damages and further enforcement actions.

Pro-Tip: “Well, that’s part of it. If you know ahead of time and good experienced lawyer that’s not just ready to milk you, because that’s what they do, they won’t propose a solution. They’ll just propose fight, fight. But sometimes we have them come in and say, no, no, no, don’t pay us all this money. Pay the extra $3,000 in wages. Send out amended pay stubs before you even have to answer the complaint. And guess what? All of the causes of action that have attorney’s fees in them are gone. Nobody wants to see you anymore because of that. So yeah, quick action gives your lawyer the right to do things that just destroy a case in the beginning.

Call us, and you describe what’s going on with a certain troubled employee. And we can tell you like skin cancer, oh, that fact scenario doesn’t really fit something that I would go ahead and fight with them or we can say, oh, this one looks bad because of the things they’re complaining about or just the general facts. I would handle it this way. And so you can turn a 20, $30,000 lawsuit situation into empowerment where you can stand your ground or maybe you make some concessions because you got some advice from your lawyer. You need to know when you got to worry about it and when you don’t.

First of all, when a plaintiff thinks about suing, they go to a lawyer, right? And then you’ll see a change in the way they’re talking to you. All of a sudden they start posturing, trying to “pad the file,” and you’ll start receiving communications that sound like you’re getting set up. And you might be, and people in your staff will say, this person’s acting different. Well, if you called your lawyer, I would run a check to see if anything was filed already, because what I like to do is if I’m a plaintiff’s lawyer, I’m going to file it and not let you know until I’ve gathered evidence. But if you know that they filed and they’re hoping you won’t be gathering evidence and they’re trying to set you up, you can be gathering evidence yourself before they even serve you. And you could be fixing things, mitigating things before their case gets going and beat them to the punch, so to speak.” – Dan Watkins, Managing Partner

Learn how to protect your interests as a San Diego employer.  We invite you to review our podcast Episode 39 – What Keeps Employers Up at Night as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.