Are you an employer searching for legal representation for a labor hearing in San Diego or anywhere in Southern California?  The Watkins Firm has more than 40 years of experience in these cases and you can trust our proven attorneys to protect your interests and accomplish your objectives for the hearing or conference.

Labor Commission or Labor Board conferences should be an immediate cause for concern for any Southern California employer.  California is known as the toughest environment in which to be an employer and the California Labor Commission is dedicated to “robust enforcement of labor laws.”  All it takes is one complaint from a disgruntled employee and you and your company can be exposed to substantial legal and financial risk.

Labor Commissioners are responsible for managing all incoming employee-related complaints, investigating the nature and substance of a claim, and conducting any subsequent field audits or records review before inviting the employer to an “informal” conference on the matter.  You need to know there is nothing “informal” about these conferences.  The Commissioners refer to these as “settlement conferences” and they have already established a perception of guilt in the matter but have a “number in mind” (read: you write a BIG check) to resolve the case.

This is why you need legal representation for a labor hearing in San Diego.  The first and most important step in these cases is preparation.  Our attorneys thoroughly review the issues in your case, all available records and work to prepare you for any interviews, investigations or records requests.  We prepare you for a hearing so you are ready to respond as an employer who understands and follows California’s complex laws and regulations.

In many cases we are able to simply respond to the initial notification, provide substantive evidence and request the agency to either take no action on the complaint or to dismiss the matter altogether.  It is important to note that what happens in this case isn’t the end of the matter.  It can actually open the door to more serious and substantial legal and financial exposures including a PAGA action across many employees.

Pro-Tip: “The first thing to know about a labor hearing is there’s no such thing as “informal.”  They want you to come in, unrepresented, for an “informal hearing,” where they will grill you on California and federal labor law.  After you fail their interrogation because you’re not a labor attorney, the conversation quickly turns to a “settlement” (read: a big check).  There’s nothing informal about it, and you need an experienced lawyer to protect your interests and reduce your risks.

What is the remedy in a wage and hour-related dispute?  Well, a wage and hour dispute the remedy for us is to fix the wage in our case if there is one. And we do that rather quickly because we get so many of them every day. So you are the plaintiff’s lawyer, you’re suing my client. Well the minute my client knows something, he’s going to tell me. I’m going to look at whatever he or she may have been doing, I’m going to fix it. It’s usually like the remedy is a fix the way the paycheck’s written or calculated or the breaks or whatever, I’ll fix it. Pay the employee the extra $500 before the lawyer can file a lawsuit. And so if there’s no breach at the time of the lawsuit, there’s no attorney’s fees and your case goes away.

Class actions – That’s how you take a mistake on the way somebody drafted someone’s paycheck in the tune of, let’s say $15 a week. That puts you in a class action that costs you $300,000, $400,000 because of a counting error because they went into a class action. 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 can call. If there’s any questions or your staff can call, then you won’t have this problem. And if you do, then you shut it down right away.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Do you need experienced, proven legal representation for a labor hearing in San Diego or Southern 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.