The Path of an Employment 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. After handling hundreds of employment cases over the years, I have noticed that these cases all tend to follow the same pattern. This is true for most all employment cases including claims for overtime pay and workplace discrimination.
Stage One - Ignoring It
Companies often ignore cases at first. They ignore them because they don't want to deal with it and they hope the matter will just go away. This is actually a good strategy because a lot of people will just go away if they are ignored. Many employment law firms do not like filing law suits and they prefer to settle cases early so if a company ignores the case, sometimes they do just go a way. So do not be surprised if the company ignores your case or provides a curt denial at first. That is a common response.
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. For example, during a recent sexual harassment case, the company representatives and lawyers were actually laughing during the hearing. They never credited our client's claim and were confident they would prevail. 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 the employee or anyone else they can cast blame upon. They will try to delay the case and 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, your case will probably settle before trial. Approximately 95% of these cases are resolved through settlement. Settlements require compromise and that means getting less than you deserve. When a case settles, you are likely to feel like a reasonable solution was reached in which both sides compromised their positions. There is a famous saying that the sign of a good settlement is when neither side likes the result - the company usually feels like it paid too much and the employee feels like that they were not paid enough.
