If you are a California employer you will need sound business counsel and a proven San Diego employment defense attorney on your side. The Watkins Firm has more than four decades of experience representing and protecting our business clients when an employer needs legal defense for any employment related dispute, agency hearing or lawsuit.

3 Takeaways About What to Look For in a Proven San Diego Employment Defense Attorney:

• California employers face disputes and lawsuits on every day from every directions. It is the most difficult state in the Union in which to be an employer.  It also presents the greatest risk of being sued if you are an employer.
• Employers face lawsuits for more things than you might imagine, including but not limited to overtime and wage issues, class action lawsuits and Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA lawsuits, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, as well as every aspect of how they treat an employee from the moment they hire one, to how they treat or discriminate against one, to how employees are evaluated, promoted, disciplined, harassed, retaliated against or terminated.
• The best defense is a good offense – preparation and consistent, legal actions and immediate advice and counsel if you think ‘something is up’ are the keys to preventing the need for an employment defense attorney from the Watkins Firm.

Successful Outcomes Even When Our Clients Thought There Was No Chance in Their Case

Many of our clients have gone into their case feeling that they were not in a strong position or that the Courts might be stacked against them.  This is simply not the case.  We have achieved outright victory in court for clients who thought the evidence was overwhelmingly against them.  This is due to our advice and counsel, legal skill, experience, proactive measures to mitigate and remediate, discovery and trial skills.

California is, by far, the hardest state in which to be an employer.  California employers face lawsuits from any and every direction. This is why you need an experienced, proven San Diego employment defense attorney from the Watkins Firm.  The most common of these lawsuits include, but are not limited to:

• Wage and Hour Issues including Unpaid Overtime
• Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA Lawsuits
• Misclassification of Employees (Such as Independent Contractors)
• Employee Contract Disputes
• Discrimination
• Sexual Harassment
• Wrongful Termination
• Retaliation

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

As general business counsel and a proven San Diego employment defense attorney I can tell you it’s all about the details and the documentation.  The attorneys at the Watkins Firm help our clients to integrate strategies, practices, policies and procedures to reduce or eliminate their exposure to these claims before a dispute arises.  We work with clients to develop internal documentation and records keeping strategies to support efforts in preventing and/or defending employee allegations.

The Process of a Proven San Diego Employment Defense Attorney Lays the Foundation for Success

The process of a proven San Diego employment defense attorney at the Watkins Firm lays the foundation for success from the outset. Our experienced litigation team aggressively investigates the facts and supporting documents in the case, as well as the behavior of the principles before, during and after allegations surfaced.  We interview critical witnesses including other employees, the management team as well as friends and family members of the accuser. We quickly and efficiently develop a thorough, well-documented chronology of events, as well as all potential damages and exposure.

Social media posts by the employee also provide a wealth of valuable information and insight into the mindset of the employee and the impact (or lack thereof) of the issues at hand on their life.  Our lawyers take a unique approach to litigation designed to resolve your case as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.  We apply our decades of experience, legal skill and expertise and investigation tactics to help your case to have a positive resolution.

Fast Action Achieves the Best Results

Wage and hour and PAGA actions against area employers have skyrocketed over the past few years.  Plaintiffs attorneys are aggressively advertising to find disgruntled current or former employees who might have some basis upon which to base a lawsuit or PAGA class action. The best piece of advice we can give to any San Diego or anywhere California employer is to take immediate action at the first sign of any employee-related dispute.  This is especially true if an employer receives correspondence from a law firm or legal team requesting information about a current or former employee.

The moment you, as an employer, even begin to think ‘something is up with that employee’ you need to call the Watkins Firm for a free, substantive consultation at 858-535-1511.  This is especially true if you have received a letter from any agency, law firm, or even individual or former employee asking for data about any current of former employee.  Take immediate action.  There are always steps you can take as an employer to mitigate the damages and risk you will face, or remediate the situation altogether.  We love blowing up plaintiff’s lawsuits before they ever have a chance to get going!

Pro-Tip: “Every year it gets harder. They come up with new laws, new issues, new matters, and then the courts rule on them one way or the other. And these employees are more educated. They read this stuff, they’re constantly bombarded with sales pitches from lawyers. So they’re watching everything you do when you hire somebody all across the nation and especially in California.

There’s a whole industry. It’s doubled. There are class actions, PAGA wasn’t even heard of in 20 years ago. And now every seminar you hear about is on PAGA defense. There’s sexual harassment, used to be the young, the big game in town. And now you’ve got to check your paycheck stubs to make sure that they’re not spelled wrong or there’s a missed decibel point, or you’re going to get a class action lawsuit filed against you in, in a multitude of ways. Obviously we have wage and hour disputes. Those are big. They’re everywhere. They’re big in California, they’re big nationally. In fact, the United States Supreme Court recently just ruled in favor of the employee again.

Wage and hour and overtime are similar, but PAGA, a private attorney general claim against the employer is a really heating up. There are law firms that just do that and they send out constant communications to every area of employee you can imagine. And if anyone’s thinking about leaving your employment, they’re going to be tempted to get a little severance, pay involuntary and then misclassification of independent contractors. California keeps changing the law and the courts keep changing their interpretation of the California law. So yes, they do really hard to stay on top of that. Sexual harassment is always a scary thing because you can get sued for sexual harassment and lose, even though no one was actually harassed because you didn’t investigate it. Right. That’s a separate cause of action. Failing to investigate it according to the law, even if your investigation finds out that it was a false claim, which seems terrible, but it’s true. And then discrimination claims are always there. Retaliation again for somebody making a false claim. If you retaliate against them for lying about you and suing and lying about you, you’re still liable for retaliating against a liar. Again, terrible but true. And then general wrongful termination, how people are terminated and whether or not you comply, you can get stuck with 60 days of pay that you inadvertently didn’t know about.

If employers would just call us the minute they’re aware of an issue, there’s so much more we can do to help them.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Contact a Proven San Diego Employment Defense Attorney at Watkins Firm Today

Place a call to the Watkins Firm for a substantive and free consultation at the first sign of trouble.  We provide insight and can help to evaluate the genuine risk(s) you might be facing and the immediate action(s) you can take to mitigate or remediate existing or contingent risks.  There is often a short time frame (30 days or less) to take the action which could stop a potential lawsuit in it’s tracks.  The actions taken in the first few weeks often mean the difference between a minor challenge and a major lawsuit.

If you are a San Diego employer facing an employment related dispute, lawsuit or hearing before a federal or state agency we invite you to review our podcast Episode 28 – Common Employer Disputes and Defenses as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.

Meet Dan Watkins:

Daniel W. Watkins is a true people person who sincerely listens. He cares about things that occur in other people’s lives. Dan enjoys digging into the facts and finding creative solutions to problems. He is not shy about giving his opinion either.

Dan’s interest in people make him deeply invested in every relationship and his exuberant personality makes him a true litigator. Dan fights for his clients with a fierce and calculated commitment.

Dan has practiced in the areas of business, medical practices and healthcare business, high tech/science, real estate and employment defense law since 1987. He is a seasoned litigator and true trial attorney with over 50 jury and bench trials to his credit. Dan has successfully represented both large companies and individuals and achieved substantial victories in well-publicized trials throughout California and the U.S.

He is experienced in business and corporate formation and administration, as well as all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including binding arbitration and mediation.

THE ROAD TO BECOMING A BUSINESS LAWYER AND LITIGATOR

Dan has almost 40 years of experience working with, for and against some of the largest insurance companies in the country. He has successfully tried and litigated cases in the areas of Healthcare Compliance, Commercial Litigation, Unfair Business Practices, Fraud, Breach of Contract, Battery, Premises Liability, Product Defect, Medical Malpractice, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Construction Defect, as well as Unfair Competition, Defamation, and Trade Secrets.

In December 2003, Dan commenced litigation against Health South Surgery Centers-West, Inc and its’ subsidiaries, exposing the company’s extensive mismanagement and misconduct of its’ surgery centers. Dan has also been asked by some of California’s largest municipalities and corporations to conduct legally required investigations into matters involving alleged employment discrimination and harassment.