What is the importance of your calendar and meeting notes in employer defense?  How might a few extra steps protect your company and reduce exposure associated with any employer defense matter or business dispute?

Many San Diego business professionals, employers, contractors and real estate investors or shareholders don’t realize the value of keeping a detailed calendar.  A calendar is a daily record of your activities that can be admissible in Court, and is often a valuable tool in any business litigation in San Diego.

Never underestimate the importance of your calendar and meeting notes in employer defense or business litigation.  Your calendar shouldn’t simply track meeting times and attendees.  Add notes about what was discussed, what action was taken, what work was completed, and any agreements which were made.  Oral agreements and promises to perform can be noted and this documentation, when combined with other evidence of the existence of the oral agreement become valuable evidence in a business dispute or litigation.

Start every meeting with a simple notepad.  At the top of the notepad simply write down the date and time, attendees and the primary focus of your meeting.  Make sure to capture notes about any important issue(s) which arise, and as little or as many details about the meeting as you need to capture the essence of what was discussed.

Details which seem unimportant in the moment may be the difference between the ability to show good faith effort or action on a contract or business project, and losing a lawsuit for breach of contract.

Do you make notes while you work?  Information is power, and the party who can provide the most substantive contemporary information will carry the day in any resulting dispute.

Consider taking a few moments to document how much work was accomplished on a given date, and how many hours you spend on one project or task versus another.  These details go a long way to protecting your interests down the road.  There will come a day when a dispute arises and the importance of your calendar and meeting notes in employer defense or resolving any business dispute cannot be overstated.

Pro-Tip: “Call us, and you describe what’s going on with a certain troubled employee. And we can tell you, like skin cancer, oh, that fact scenario doesn’t really fit something that I would go ahead and fight with them. Or we can say, oh, this one looks 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 $20,000, $30,000 lawsuit situation into empowerment where you can stand your ground or maybe you make some concessions because you got some advice from your lawyer. You need to know when you got to worry about it and when you don’t.

And then in the worst case scenario, if there is a lawsuit brewing or one’s even been filed, there’s a secret clock you’re not even aware of. There’s a time frame in which you need to act.First of all, when an employee (or should we say ‘future plaintiff’) thinks about suing, they go to a lawyer, right? And then you’ll see a change in the way they’re talking to you. All of a sudden they start posturing

And you’ll start receiving communications that sound like you’re getting set up. And you might be, and people in your staff will say, this person’s acting different. Well, if you called your lawyer, I would run a check to see if anything was filed already, because what I like to do is if I’m a plaintiff’s lawyer, I’m going to file it and not let you know until I’ve gathered evidence. But if you know that they filed and they’re hoping you won’t be gathering evidence and they’re trying to set you up, you can be gathering evidence yourself before they even serve you. And you could be fixing things, mitigating things before their case gets going and beat them to the punch, so to speak.

So we can look it up. You think you’re getting sued? We can look it up and tell you if online, if anyone’s filed an action against you today.  And even if there isn’t a lawsuit filed, there’s usually something they can do to make things better or to make them go away altogether.  Like a simple description of how you’re treating this employee sends off bells and whistles to us or sends off nothing.And yet, if you treat them decently and under the law, that goes a long way if it ever gets to court.

That’s a really important point to think about. If you think there’s something going on and we spot it, we can say, okay, instead of communicating this way, we’ll give you some good suggestions on what to say, how to say it. We can actually ghost write your emails for you, and because we’re your lawyer, no one can ever discover that. So we can do lots of things for you to really set yourself up for the worst and hopefully head off a lawsuit.

And there are effective ways for an employer to look at the situation and say, how can I approach this respectfully, and how do I clarify the situation to say, this is your job. Here’s my job. This is where we are.

And the cost of calling the Watkins firm and getting an answer from either one of our attorneys or our paralegals is nothing compared to what you’re about to go through. Think about that. You have a payroll expense in your accounting books that payroll over the years, probably your biggest number, your rent, your payroll, those are big numbers. Absolutely. If you take a tiny percent of that and put it towards getting consultations to make sure we’re doing things right so we don’t get sued and that number doesn’t double, that’s thinking ahead.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

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.