Clients come in to my office all the time who have been treated unfairly by their employers. Often they want to file a lawsuit to address this treatment but due to choices that they have made, there may be little or nothing that can be done legally. There are several things you can do to sink your claim before it is ever filed. Here are just a few that can be fatal.
- Failure to keep up with records.
In employment cases, the employer generally has all the cards. Most employers have records of their employees that date back to the first time they submit an application or submit a resume. As a result at the first sign of legal trouble, the employer and their attorneys will look for any reason to justify the decisions that have been made. An employee who has a corresponding record that contains everything it received from the employer has a better chance of disputing inaccuracies in the employer’s version of the events.
- Failure to report inappropriate conduct or comments to the employer when they happen
Employees must provide their employers an opportunity to correct problem behavior in the work place. The most obvious reason for this is that federal employment laws provide protection for employers who implement anti-discrimination/harassment policies. That protection effectively limit an employee’s ability to recover certain types of damages when they have failed to report the improper behavior. The second reason to report the improper conduct is that it adds credence to the employee’s version of the events. The simple truth is that in the employment context it is better to be proactive in terms of getting your version of the events out on the table first. If you are wondering why, ask yourself who you would believe, the person with a clean record who complains about an event or the person who is two steps from termination who suddenly claims to be the victim of discrimination.
- Failure to report the conduct to the proper governmental authority
Failing to report harassing or discriminatory conduct to the appropriate state or federal authority is probably the most damaging mistake to potential employment claims. Most employment discrimination claims require the employee to report discriminatory conduct to the EEOC or corresponding state entity within a relatively short period. In many states, claims of discrimination must be reported within six months of the discriminatory conduct or they can never be raised as a basis for a lawsuit. What’s more, reporting the discriminatory conduct to the company has no effect on the deadline.
- Being dishonest with your attorney
In order to pursue a claim on your behalf, your attorney must have the whole truth. Holding important information back during the initial interview can not only make it harder to evaluate your case at the outset, it can also create problems in your relationship with your attorney. This is important because your attorney needs to know the good, the bad and the downright ugly at the beginning of the case in order to adequately represent you. As an attorney, I would rather have you tell me that you were fired for tardiness or filed bankruptcy than have opposing counsel tell me. More importantly, not all bad facts are fatal to your case, but the only way to know is by disclosing them to your attorney.
