Are you searching for an experienced attorney who can defend an employer in a wage and hour dispute in San Diego or anywhere in California?  The number of employer-related disputes and lawsuits has substantially increased over the past several years. Rapid changes to California’s wage and hour laws require California employers to quickly catch up and come into compliance to avoid draconian penalties – financial setbacks that can totally disrupt your business, and in many cases bring it to a close.  What new threats are developing on the wage and hour front?

Key takeaways regarding Employer Defense in a Wage and Hour Dispute or Lawsuit

• The number of employers defending wage and hour lawsuits in California has substantially increased over the past few years.
• Unpaid overtime, failure to pay minimum wage, meal and rest break violations, off the clock work, misclassification of employees, and errors with the data or formatting of a paycheck are a few of the most common reasons for an employer to have to defend a wage and hour dispute
• The moment you, as an employer, suspect there might be a problem with any worker, you need to pick up the phone and call 858-535-1511 for a free consultation with the employer defense attorneys at the Watkins Firm.

Unpaid Overtime and Other Wage-Related Disputes

The Watkins Firm has extensive experience in employment defense matters including the need to defend an employer in a wage and hour dispute.  San Diego courts (and California courts in general) have seen a rapid rise in the number of wage and hour lawsuits filed over the past several years. Many employer wage and hour disputes in San Diego relate to unpaid overtime allegations, failure to pay minimum wage, meal and rest break violations, withholding tips from employees or illegal tip pooling, off the clock work, late or unpaid wages at the end of employment, or the failure to reimburse valid expenses, often after an employee has left your company.  Even though they submit time cards and you think you have your bases covered, a long term employee appears before a judge and says something to the effect of “I was forced to work nights and weekends, just to keep my job,” resulting in substantial legal and financial exposure for you, the employer.  California courts tend to side with the employee, and these cases can become legal quagmires quickly.

Another wave of cases relate to the misclassification of independent contractors.  The IRS, and many California agencies are using a recent US Supreme Court case to audit California and San Diego businesses looking for independent contractors.  The designation no longer comes down to who has control over tools, work schedules and technology.  The Supreme Court case establishes a test of the “financial” relationship between the independent contractor and the company providing the work.

If the work of an independent contractor is focused upon your primary business activities or generates profit you’re your company you may be in jeopardy.  Other factors such as the investment of both parties in their respective businesses, the existence of professional licensing and complex work as well as the ability of the independent contractor to affect their own profit and loss have become part of the equation.

Fast Proactive Action Can Substantially Reduce Risk and Financial Exposure

What can we do to help defend an employer in a wage and hour dispute in California?  There are steps you can take to close the door on unpaid overtime cases and strengthen any potential wage and hour defense.  The key is to reach out to the Watkins Firm immediately upon learning a potential employee-related dispute is at hand, and call us at (858) 535-1511 for a free, substantive consultation.  We can tell you if there are genuine, substantial risks and how to begin to mitigate any damages, or remediate the challenge altogether.

There are also proactive steps employers can take to reduce the likelihood of present and future exposure(s) relating to a wage and hour dispute.  Updating employment agreements, company policies, employee handbooks, policies and procedures, and even modifications to time cards may be required to protect California and San Diego area employers.

Pro-Tip: “you take a mistake on the way somebody drafted someone’s paycheck to the tune of, let’s say $15 a week. As a California employer, that puts you in a class action that costs you $300,000 to $400,000 because of an accounting error resulting in a huge lawsuit. Now, had you had certain types of agreements in place, even some kinds of arbitration agreements, (that’s where we’re at now on these laws), you could have cut this off.  Also, had you had some lawyer you could talk to about your procedures or maybe an outside accounting service to review it or a CPA or our HR person, someone you or someone on your staff can call, then you won’t have this problem. And if you do, then you shut it down right away.

Fast action in any of these matters is the key. Pick up the phone and call us the second that you think something’s going on. The good news is, Judges don’t really like these cases, and there’s a lot of technical reasons to throw them out because the opposing counsel are turning into sort of a shady PI lawyer, the type of person that hangs out in the hospital room. These kind of plaintiff’s employment lawyers are starting to be like that. And so if they don’t follow all the rules and you get to court in the first couple of months and you file a motion saying you didn’t give the proper notice, you didn’t state the proper cause of action, the judge will throw it out.

How can we help you to remediate the problem? That’s part of the solution, if you know ahead of time and work with a good, experienced lawyer at Watkins Firm.  Unfortunately, a lot of other lawyers just seem ready to milk you, because that’s what they do, they won’t propose a solution. They’ll just propose ‘fight, fight, fight.’

But sometimes, we can tell our employers ‘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 yes, quick action gives your lawyer the right to do things that just destroy a case in the beginning.  And our goal with our employers is to help them out. We’re here to help them through this and be there for them when they really need us. When you do defense work, you want to get rid of cases as soon as possible. Nobody in business makes money just staying in litigation.

The most important piece of advice I could give an employer in these types of cases is this: ‘the second that you become aware of any potential employee related dispute, pick up the phone and call us for a free consultation.  We can tell you if you have a genuine challenge, or, that that mole isn’t cancer!’

Call us, and you describe what’s going on with a certain troubled employee. And we can tell you, ‘oh, that fact scenario doesn’t really fit something that I would worry about,’ or we can say, ‘oh, this one looks potentially 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 $200,000 or $300,000 lawsuit situation into empowerment where you can stand your ground or maybe you make some concessions because you got some sound advice from your Watkins Firm lawyer. You need to know when you’ve got to worry about it, and when you don’t.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Attorneys With 40 Years of Experience to Defend an Employer in a Wage and Hour Dispute in California

All of these issues expose California and San Diego businesses to great risk and liability.  Do you need an experienced attorney to defend an employer in a wage and hour dispute in San Diego or anywhere in California? 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.  Draw on our four decades of experience and proven strategies.  Together, we will develop a strategy to review your practices, documentation and manuals, as well as your exposure to potential liability.  If you are at the outset of an employee-related dispute we can take quick action to remedy the situation and resolve the matter while reducing your legal and financial exposure.