Copyright © 2009 MaguireLaw. California Trust Attorney. All Rights Reserved.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law."
Gil Maguire, Attorney of the CA law firm MaguireLaw represents clients in California the areas of general law, estate planning,
wills and trusts, divorce and family law, collaborative law, mediation, small business law, and employment law including
wrongful termination and retaliation, wage and hour law, unlawful discrimination, sexual harassment, and employment contracts
and separation agreements. MaguireLaw provides legal services for clients in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme,
Point Mugu, Malibu, Santa Paula, Filmore, Newhall, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Simi Valley,
Agoura, Agoura Hills, Oak Park, Hidden Hills, Calabasas, West Hills, Woodland Hills, Chatsworth,
Tarzana, Encino, Northridge, Grenada Hills, Canoga Park, in Ventura County and
Los Angeles County, California.
If my initial screening of your case reveals facts that suggest you may have potential legal
claims against your employer or former employer, I will schedule a case evaluation interview. California Employment Law is very complex and hence requires me to be very thorough in my evaluation of potential cases.
In representing employees in disputes against employers, the critical issue is whether the employee has been treated unlawfully. It is important to understand that unfair or unethical treatment by an employer may not be unlawful. In California, employment law presumes that all employees are working at-will, unless there is evidence to the contrary, such as in a written employment contract, or for government civil service positions.
An at-will employee may quit at any time, for any reason or no reason. Likewise, an employer can terminate an at-will employee at any time, for any reason or for no reason, so long as it is not an unlawful reason. This distinction is very important because it means that at-will employees can be legally terminated without good cause.
In other words, if you are an at-will employee and your employer unfairly decides to terminate you because of favoritism, because he or she generally doesn’t like you, because he or she incorrectly thought you had done something wrong, or because he or she incorrectly thought you were too slow, or incompetent or bad with customers, or for other similar unfair reasons, it is still probably a legal termination. It may be unfair and/or unethical, but unless you were subjected to illegal treatment at work and/or unless your termination was for an illegal reason, you probably don’t have a case.
To put it another way, even if you have or had a jerk for a boss who treated and/or terminated you unfairly, you still may not have a legal case. If you try to pursue a case for unfair, unethical, but not illegal treatment by your employer, you will be wasting your time and money.
Examples of illegal treatment would be discrimination or harassment in the workplace based on an employee’s sex, sexual orientation, race, color, ethnicity, age (if over 40), disability, pregnancy, medical condition, use of personal or family medical leave, etc. Other examples would include: failure to pay minimum wage or overtime; retaliation against an employee who reports or complains about unlawful workplace conduct or unsafe workplace conditions or practices, retaliation against an employee who refuses to perform unsafe or unlawful acts, etc.
The purpose of my office case evaluation interview is to establish whether you were treated
illegally by your employer in some manner. It is designed to help you describe your work situation to me so I can do a proper evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of your case. Again, the complexity of California employment law makes it important for me to thoroughly evaluate your possible claims. For that reason, I cannot answer “quick questions” or provide legal advice over the phone.
If I feel you might have a promising case, based on the information you gave me in your initial phone call, I will offer to evaluate your case in my office. If, by the end of that interview, I feel you don’t have a good case, I will tell you so. Sometimes cases that look very promising after the initial call, turn out to be very weak after the office interview. Other times cases that initially looked weak and less promising are found to be much stronger. Often, as a result of the office interview, I discover new legal claims that neither of us was aware of before the interview.
