Are you searching for attorneys who can provide experienced, proven defense for employers in California PAGA cases?  What is the California Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA and why is this such an important issue to understand if you are an employer in San Diego or anywhere in California?

PAGA was established by the State of California to increase revenues by allowing employees to act as a proxy for the state during an associated lawsuit or class action.  The Private Attorneys General Act basically creates the opportunity for a whistleblower claim known legally as a “Qui Tam.”  Employees who participate in a successful PAGA action are incentivized by a substantial share of any of the financial damages recovered during the course of a PAGA lawsuit or class action.

Take Immediate Action to Call the Watkins Firm at the First Hint of a PAGA Action or Employee Related Dispute

If you, as an employer, receive any type of notice or become aware of any potential employee related dispute or PAGA action it is important to immediately seek the advice and counsel of the proven PAGA defense team at the Watkins Firm.  A successful defense for employers in California PAGA cases begins with taking immediate steps to significantly reduce or potentially remediate the issues at hand or mitigate associated risks.  It is impossible to overstate the importance of taking immediate substantial legal action in these cases.

What Types of Cases Have the Potential to Become a PAGA Action?

The provisions of California’s PAGA laws encompass many potential violations by San Diego employers such as wage and hour or unpaid overtime, health and safety violations, unfair competition or workers who are misclassified as a 1099 worker or independent contractor.  Plaintiff’s attorneys here in Southern California actively advertise to attract any employee with a potential claim.  The goal is to recruit that employee and begin an action which requires the employer to provide notice to all employees so that other potential plaintiffs can be recruited and added to the lawsuit.  PAGA also provides access to substantial internal information which is then used against the employer in the case.

Pro-Tip: “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 legal and economic motivation.

You can’t have a class 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 to certify the class, so that it’s assumed that everyone has suffered the same harm. After 40+ years of experience I can tell you that 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.

Best case scenario is the client gets that notice, that little letter in the mail, contacts us, and we check everything out. And if there’s anything wrong, we cure it. We fix it before the plaintiffs can even file an action. Every possible issue they’ve complained about has been fixed, cured and remedied. So the motivation is denied. The plaintiff’s counsel finds the big payoff is gone. And once that plaintiff’s lawyer knows that they’re not going to make a lot of money on it, they usually don’t want to spend much time.

So we’ve got this letter that our clients brought us, and it’s time to answer the complaint. We’ve got several options. What do we do if we’re at the complaint stage and we haven’t been successful in curing and doing the other things we like to do to make the case go away, we’ve got to answer the complaint. And when it comes to answering the complaint, of course you deny, in general, deny everything, but you also identify affirmative defenses. The definition of affirmative defense is ‘it’s a new matter.’ It says, in addition to what the plaintiff put in the complaint, we have other reasons why they’re not entitled to anything. And these are our defenses. One would be when an employee breaches the contract, he or she is suing on. You can’t expect the benefit of your bargain if you didn’t perform, right? The next one is the employee’s not hurt. They weren’t actually hurt. And the members of the party they’re trying to bring forward, many of them suffered no damages. So they have no damages.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

The Best Strategy of Defense for Employers in California PAGA Cases

The best strategy of defense for employers in California PAGA cases is to take immediate action and get our attorneys involved as soon as possible.  We invite you to review our podcast Episode 18 – Private Attorneys General Act – 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. We can take immediate actions to reduce or eliminate your exposure, limit potential financial damages and thwart the potential for substantial additional attorneys fees for plaintiff’s lawyers in your case.