What should a California employer do with a demand letter requesting employee data?  Have you received a letter from an attorney, law firm, or agency requesting employee data as a California employer?  Unfortunately, the State of California makes it very difficult to meet all of the regulations and laws imposed upon San Diego employers and this has resulted in a new trend: strongly worded demand letters requesting information about your employees and threatening litigation and financial exposure.

Key Takeaways Regarding What a California Employer Should Do With A Demand Letter Requesting Employee Data?

• Take immediate action if you receive any communication or a demand letter requesting employee data.
• There is a specific time frame requiring a response – often 21 days or 30 days.  If there is no time frame mentioned there is often a secret clock running, and the failure to take immediate action can result in litigation resulting in substantial financial exposure.
• Any California employer with questions, especially an employer who receives any form of communication from an attorney or law firm or a demand letter, should call the Watkins Firm for a free consultation immediately at (858) 535-1511.  There are actions you can take, right now, that can mitigate your exposure(s), or remediate them altogether.

Are These Letters for Real?

Unfortunately, they can be very real and left unattended can open you and your business up to extensive legal and financial risk.  These letters are written to appear as if they come from a law firm citing Labor Code Sections such as 1198.5, 225(c), 432 and Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders.

These types of letters are often disguised as a demand letter requesting employee data, payroll records, wage statements and performance evaluations going back three years.  The letter will often mention a “Tolling Agreement” in order to “prevent any potential settlement negotiations from ending prematurely.”  Questions may be asked about “arbitration” or any “agreement to arbitrate.”  The letters always contain a limited response time frame such as “within 21 days of this letter” or (insert legal and financial threats here!).

It is Never In Your Interest to Respond Without The Advice of the Watkins Firm

Some of these letters are absolutely bogus and a simple response from our experienced San Diego employer defense attorneys will resolve the matter.  In other cases, plaintiff’s lawyers may be attempting to establish the groundwork for a PAGA action (Private Attorneys General Act) or wage and hour litigation that can expose you and your company to extensive legal and financial risks.

What Should I Do If I Receive a Demand Letter Requesting Employee Data

The most important thing you need to do is take immediate action.  Don’t blow it off, or ignore it and hope it goes away.  There are legal remedies under administrative law which can substantially reduce or often eliminate entirely all financial and legal risks associated with the complaint at hand.

However, action must be taken in an immediate time frame to mitigate the circumstances and protect your business and employment interests.  If you are a California employer, we invite you call the Watkins Firm, right now, for a free, substantive consultation at (858) 535-1511.

Pro-Tip: “What are some of the risks a California employer now face? 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 to $400,000 because of an accounting error, that opened the door 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 an experienced Watkins Firm employer defense lawyer you could talk to about your procedures or maybe our HR person, you could get immediate answers and start to take action to resolve the problems.  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, the judge will throw it out.

Mitigate or remediate the problem.  If you know ahead of time and call a good, experienced lawyer at the Watkins Firm – one that’s not just ready to milk you for revenue (because that’s what they do, they won’t propose a solution. They’ll just propose fight, fight) – in many cases we have them come in and 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 sue you anymore because of that.  So yes, quick action gives your lawyer the right to do things that just destroy a case in the beginning.

Our goal with our employer clients is to help them out. We’re here to help them through this and be there for them when they really need us. When you do defense work, you want to get rid of cases as soon as possible. Nobody in business makes money just staying in litigation.

The most important piece of advice I would give an employer is the second that you become aware of any potential employee related dispute, pick up the phone and call us and we can tell you if there may be a genuine problem, or if ‘that mole isn’t cancer.’

Call us, and 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’ve got to worry about it and when you don’t.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

We Provide a Free Consultation to San Diego Employers Who Receive Threatening Letters

No obligation.  No hassle.  A free consultation with a proven, experienced San Diego employer defense attorney who can tell you quickly if the issue is real or not, and provide sound counsel on the potential risks associated with any demand letter requesting employee data from a San Diego employer.

In most cases, a few prompt actions and steps can resolve any genuine exposure.  If there is a genuine issue on the table, your immediate attention and action will save a substantial amount of time and money down the road.  After more than 40 years of experience I tell all of our employer clients to simply and immediately act.  Pick up the phone, let us take a quick look to see if this is bogus, a genuine threat or something in between.  In most cases, we can simply provide guidance on the quick actions necessary to thwart or eliminate the threat.

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.