The Four Stages of an Employment Law Case
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - GANDHI
If you are thinking of bringing a case against your employer, you should know how these cases often play out. It can be a wild ride and you need to know what you are in for before you take that leap. After handling hundreds of employment discrimination and sexual harassment cases over the years, I have noticed that these cases all tend to follow the same pattern.
Stage One - Ignoring It
Companies often ignore our initial efforts to communicate with them about the case. We typically send a short letter to the company to see if they are interested in resolving the matter. Most of the time the companies simply ignore these letters or provide a curt denial. The one exception to this rule are cases that involve severance packages. When we contact companies about an employee who has been provided with a severance agreement, companies tend to be more willing to discuss the matter.
Stage Two - Laughing About It
I cannot tell you how many times companies have tried to laugh off the allegations made in our employment cases. The arrogance can be shocking. But let them laugh. We have handled many cases that start out with laughing denials and wind up settling with a large check or a verdict against the company. In fact, during a recent sexual harassment case, the company representatives and lawyers were actually laughing during the hearing. I would love to have seen their faces when they received the judge's decision finding in our client's favor.
Stage Three - Fighting It
Typically, after ignoring the case and then laughing it off, the company will then fight it. They will deny the allegations, blame our client or anyone else they can cast blame upon. They will try to delay the case or complicate it and they will resist turning over relevant information. The lawyers who defend companies in these cases are typically paid by the hour so they try to drag things out so they can bill more hours. For example, a deposition that should only take two hours will take seven or eight hours and the company lawyers may even try to drag it out into a two day affair. If you bring an employment case against your employer, you may have your deposition taken and during this deposition you may be accused of being incompetent, dishonest, immoral and generally unfit for employment. You may also have to deal with requests for information that have no connection to your case. For example, I recently had to fend off a request for dental records in an employment discrimination case. Our client's dental records obviously had nothing to do with the case but the company asked for them anyway just to be annoying. These are just a few examples of what goes on in these cases. Once these cases get into litigation, they tend to be long, nasty, expensive and unpleasant.
Stage 4 - You Win
If you can survive the first three stages of an employment case, you hopefully will experience the joy of winning. But, understand that approximately 95% of these cases are resolved through settlement and you are not likely to feel entirely vindicated. All settlements require compromise and that means getting less than you deserve. So do not plan on feeling like you won. Instead, you will hopefully feel like a reasonable solution was reached in which both sides compromised their positions.
