What are the steps to protect an employer from employee lawsuits in California?  What are some specific strategies for maintaining a productive, focused work environment while protecting yourself, and your company?

3 Important Takeaways Regarding the Steps to Protect an Employer from Employee Lawsuits in California:

• California is, by far, the most challenging state in the union in which to be an employer.  Even small, simple mistakes by an employer can lead to substantial legal issues (wage and hour, PAGA, etc.).
• The key to a good defense is a well-organized offense.  This means thorough and updated employment documentation, and timekeeping and reporting precision.
• Extensive training to comply with California mandates and to ensure pay equity, performance evaluation and documentation, and compliance.

California is Challenging for Employers

California is, in our opinion, the most challenging legal environment in the country for employers.  The combination of federal employment laws, California’s own codes and San Diego’s additional regulations make it legally and logistically challenging to effectively manage the employment relationship.  This complex range of requirements also creates ample opportunity for disputes between an employer and their workers as well as incentive for plaintiffs’ attorneys to create opportunities for a legal challenge.

It is important to note there has been a substantial increase in cases against employers in San Diego and Southern California in recent years based upon the California Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA.  PAGA provides an employee and their plaintiffs attorneys incredible tools for attracting additional existing or former employees to join the legal action resulting in a potentially contentious and expensive risk for any employer.  The Watkins Firm has extensive experienced defending are employers in PAGA actions and disrupting these actions before plaintiffs attorneys can get them off the ground.  It is well known that the law is stacked in favor of the employee here in California, and our employer clients rely upon the Watkins Firm to keep them up to date on all federal, state and local changes and developments in the law while providing specific strategies to prevent issues before they arise.

What are the Major Steps to Protect an Employer from Employee Lawsuits in California?

How can a San Diego or California employer prevent employee lawsuits or reduce the likelihood of trouble?  What are the specific steps to protect an employer from employee lawsuits in San Diego and across the State of California?  Here are a few ideas that will help to tighten compliance with employment law while reducing the likelihood of employee lawsuits.

1. Document Thoroughly and Consistently – creating a thorough document trail “after the fact” is more suspicious and less credible in a lawsuit.  Employers and their managers must consistently document areas of performance for all employees from the moment of hiring.  Offer letters should clearly state all pertinent details (i.e. start date, pay rate, at will status, exempt status).  This includes constant reviews and updates to the employee handbook, as well as a signed receipt or acknowledgement of the handbook and at-will employment.  Your policies and procedures should create a consistent formula for documenting employee complaints and the action taken to resolve them, as well as employee reviews and performance metrics.  Ensure that every position in your company has established metrics that can be measured and recorded.
2. Paychecks must be formatted in an exact manner, and timekeeping must be precise and well documented.  Ensure all rest and meal breaks rules and laws are observed and documented.  A single error on the formatting of the check or paystub, or in payment for hours worked can lead to an expensive wage and hour dispute or lawsuit.
3. Coach Under-performing Employees – and document the situation thoroughly from start to finish.  California judges and juries lean toward the side of a terminated employee, and if you have not provided a documented performance improvement plan and worked with the employee at each step to improve performance your company appears harsh and non-compliant with the “spirit” of California employment law. Make sure to handle all discipline or termination under the guidance of a Watkins Firm employer defense attorney, and meet WARN Act and final paycheck laws to the letter.
4. Keep Abreast of Federal, State and Local Employment Laws at All Times – a Judge or jury expects you to know employment laws inside and out.  They and the employee’s attorney will ask “If you don’t know them how can you follow them?”  California requires anti-harassment and other training regimines for both employees and management.  The experienced employer defense attorneys at the Watkins Firm keep our clients up-to-date on all federal, state and local employment laws and work with them to update all internal policies and procedures, employment and managerial handbooks, employment contracts, time reporting and payroll reporting to ensure that our clients consistently understand and apply all employment laws and regulations.
5. Discuss and implement Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI). Make sure you understand what your policy does and does not cover.  Your Watkins Firm lawyer for employers can help you to evaluate specific policies to select the right coverage.

Pro-Tip: “So as an employer, what’s the best precaution one can take? the answer: Pay attention and have a good lawyer.

Have a good lawyer for employers who stays up to speed and take those little technical matters seriously, because it doesn’t cost much to be in compliance. It really doesn’t, but it costs so much to get caught. Usually you don’t get caught for a few months and before you know it, you could literally lose hundreds of thousands of dollars for an accounting error or the way you put your paychecks out or your refusal or failure to put up a little sign in your break room. All those little things. There’s some lawyer out there, Mr. Bounty Hunter, looking for you to try to collect five, 10, $15,000 in attorneys fees for tiny mistakes made by San Diego and California employers.

When we’re talking about protecting our employer clients, the old saying, ‘a good defense starts with a good offense,’ definitely applies. What are the elements of a good offense in your mind for an employer?

Employment contracts, human resource manuals, employee handbooks, rules and regulations, training and staying up to speed on the ever-changing laws in California.  Having a lawyer on speed dial you can call with a question or concern and get the right answer, often without a bill!

Let’s talk about 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 three, $400,000 because of an accounting error that led to 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 a Watkins Firm 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, you could prevent a huge potential liability. 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.

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. Why does that matter?

Judges don’t really like these cases, and there’s a lot of technical reasons to throw them out because they’re turning into sort of a shady PI lawyer, the person that hangs out in the hospital room. These kind of 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, judge will throw it out.

How about if we can help you to mitigate or remediate the problem altogether? If you know ahead of time and have good experienced lawyer for employers that’s not just ready to milk you, you can put a quick, inexpensive stop to the whole thing.  Because that’s what other lawyers often do, they won’t propose a solution. They’ll just propose fight, fight. But sometimes we have our employer clients come in, and we 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.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

If you are a San Diego or California employer of any size you need an experienced, proven employer-focused law firm to help you to navigate all of the complex laws and regulations in place while reducing the opportunity for any dispute to arise.  If any hint of a potential dispute arises or you receive a letter requesting specific information on an employee you need to take immediate action and seek the guidance of the Watkins Firm.  The call won’t cost you anything and we can help you to assess the situation and quickly work to remediate any issues and take prudent steps to resolve the matter before it escalates.

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..

Meet Dan Watkins:

Daniel W. Watkins is a true people person who sincerely listens. He cares deeply about what others are going through.  Dan enjoys digging into the facts and finding creative solutions to problems.  He contributes his insights candidly and constructively.

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 trusted litigation strategist 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.