Contingency Fee Employment Law Cases
Published by James Peters August 1st, 2006 in California Employment LawOne question our potential clients always have in mind is how they will be able to afford paying an attorney to represent them in pursuing a case against their current or former employers.
After all, many of our clients recently lost their job and are either still unemployed or are trying to get back on their feet after unemployment.
We take many of our case on a "contingency-fee" basis, which generally means that a client does not have to pay us any fees unless we recover something of value (usually money) for them. At that point, we take a percentage of whatever we recover as our fee.
Whether or not we are willing to represent a client on a contingency-fee basis depends on numerous factors. When we take a case for a contingency fee, we take a very big risk. If the case is not successful, we may have expended tens-of-thousands of dollars of our time for nothing.
Even if we are not willing to take your case on a contingency-fee basis, we have a number of other options to fit your financial situation, such as payment plans and "hybrid" agreements.
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Attorney's Fees | Attorney-Client Issues | California Employment Law
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Age & race discrimination, and retaliation. Possible disability discrimination. thank you
i was but on suspension 26/1/2009 on alleged of falsification /bullying /unprofessional conduct waited untill 06/4/2009 for meeting on the 07/4/2009 was told no acton to be taken andmeeting on the 16/4/2009 i was told not vesable for me to retune and to give something tangible then may they ofert me £4821.46 in a comprmise i think they owe me more is this unfair and what can i get out off them
Events leading up to Termination at C&H sugar refinery 05-29-09
On 19 March 2007, I was employed by C&H sugar Refinery (ASR) and given an offer letter see exhibit “A”. The job offered was for the Warehouse Supervisor position, I was employed as a shipping Superintendent . And an AT WILL employee, They said it was an Exempt position but by CA standards I could see that they labeled us that so they would not have to pay us OT. If we worked weekends they told us that they would pay us a discretionary bonus, but it would get payed quarterly.David Rey was also hired the same day I was as a Shipping Superintendent The warehouse supervisor was Don White who I reported to. After one year of employment the company let Don White go and myself and the other Superintendents in the warehouse continued without a warehouse Supervisor. David Rey and myself were given 2 weeks of training and then thrown into the job. For the first 5 months I was the Grave Yard shipping Superintendent and he was the Swing shift Superintendent, we were learning and thought we were doing fine. The company put Ceasor Landa as the acting Warehouse Supervisor since he was already in the position of Assistant Warehouse Manager until they could hire another one .In March of 2008 The company brought in another Warehouse Supervisor Lemme Adams who was a difficult man to work for. He was prejudiced and proved to be so over the duration of his career there. In May 2008 Lemme Adams hired 2 more Shipping Superintends both were African American like himself.I was their trainer, Stacy Wise caught on quick and in less than 2 weeks was able to run a shift Marshall Grace took about 3-4 weeks to train and he also had bad knees and could not walk for long distances, In the upcoming months to Oct. 2008 Lemme did not get along with David Rey and counciled him numerous times, then David was put on a 90 day probation period to improve his work performances, while I was moved to Swing shift and managed to break every shipping record that was held at C&H for number of trucks shipped out on a single shift. In Oct. 2008 C&H fired David Rey for poor job performances. In Feb 2009 I was told by Lemme Adams that He was moving me to work 4 hours down on the docks for the processing department and 4 hours in the warehouse helping the superintendent on shift. I talked to the Processing Department’s supervisor M. Burchell who told me the dock superintendent job was a permanent job, at this time I was not getting along with lemme Adams and sent forward to HR a complaint about his prejudice I also went and talked to Kim Merrit the refinery manager about Lemme Adams and how he was trying to use me as a scapegoat because he no longer had David Rey to blame things on. I accepted the position working half my shift on the docks to get away from the reach of Lemme Adams, 30 days after I took this position Lemme Adams was fired for poor Management, by this time the company had moved another superintendent into my position in shipping and I was training him and learning my new job on the docks, I was doing fine with the new job it was not like the shipping job because the Process Superintendent M. Burchell did not believe in writing people up instead he would tell me just to talk to the guys and keep a record of it. For a year and 11 months I was trained to council union personnel, and hand out write ups if they did not comply with the C&H company policies.I even assisted in getting 2 union employees fired for drinking on the job when I observed them throwing beer bottles away on their lunch hour, I went through 6 months of harrassment with the workers from calling me names, obscene phone calls to my office phone and the threat of being hurt from employees I reported all to HR at the time but nothing was done, Finally everything calmed down and I had to attend the arbitration for the company and tell what I saw. Both lost their jobs which saved the company money because they don’t have to pay back pay to them. It took a long time to gain the trust of the union personnel so I could build a good repor with them in order to get more work from them. For 2 months I was placed into another job where you don’t enforce company policies with right ups. The company invested money in getting me a TWIC card and sending me to CMDM training so I can order parts to assist the Dock Mechanic Superintendent. Then in May 2009 the company wanted to reorganize and move superintendents around to other positions they placed me in the Packing Department under Cliff Sullivan and Sam Lee.I had no say so in the matter and could not even voice my opinion. Cliff and Sam both told me that they wanted me to learn the Belt lines, they gave me a schematic of the belt lines and what sugar runs on what belt line. They wanted me to learn if a belt goes down what are my options to run the product, the first week was very stress full Sam Lee walked the lines once with me but the rest of the week I was to learn on my own, After the first week I would ask them questions and tell them this is what it says on the map they gave me to study, they looked at it and said it was wrong and for me not to go by the map but to just follow the lines and learn that way, so a week of training was wasted. At no point in the 2 weeks that I was there did they tell me not to talk to the union personnel or what the company was planning, if the union goes on strike. Maston Sahota from shipping is the one who told me the company planned on bringing personnel from the east coast to run the plant if the union strikes, and he did not tell me I could not say anything to anyone. On the 22nd of May, 2009 I was in the powder Mill and they had a pile up of sugar cases on the belt line, boxes were falling off and people were around the person who takes care of this (VonGals) were called but 5 min had passed and it seemed like it was a Safety issue to me, so I went up the lines and fixed the caught box then I reset it so the cases would run and not fall off. The union member R. Pittman saw me do this and complained to the union that I was performing his job. My bosses Cliff and Sam called me into their office and asked me what happened then told me I cannot do union work I said I understand, but thought I was doing right because it was a safety issue . I was told but not counciled or written up for it.Then that was that. The 23rd ,24th and 25th I was off. On the 26th I went back to work on Day shift and had to be there at 0700- 1600 9 hours a day for training it what my schedule when I got to this new job. For the training you have to follow belt lines that are 4-5 stories high along the ceilings in order to find where they go you have to walk and climb on steel gates and ladders the first day bac I was climbing a ladder and felt a pain in my groin area, also that day my knees were hurting a lot, I called medical and asked if she had any thing for the pain, Kassina the medical receptionist gave me some Icy Hot and Motrin, I went back to training. On the 28th of May at 0730 I went to the co. Medical department and performed my annual Hearing test which came out normal then I gave the medical secretary a copy of my VA Disability ratings to place in my file she told me to come at 0815 to see the doc on the 29th. At 1000 I was in the powder room break room and some employees were asking me what happens to them if the warehouse union goes on strike, I don’t remember telling them any thing about the company bringing people from the east coast to take their positions, however I do remember asking them if they will cross the picket line if the warehouse union strikes. At 1530 on the 28th of May Cliff and Sam call me to their office and asked me if I had told anyone about bringing people from the east to fill union jobs I told them NO, and they said they had 2 witnesses that said I did, I told them No that I don’t remember saying that to them. They said ok but they think either I was lying or the 2 union members who said I said it, no formal investigation was put into place Sam said he was going to ask around and get to the truth, I went back to the powder room and asked the employees what I said there were 4 employees in all and 2 of them said I did not say anything like that, the other 2 said I did. On the 29th I went to work at 7am and continued trying to memorize the schematics of the belt lines and stay away from all union members in fear that they may make up things I said ,I was stressed from the learning of the job, to my arthritis in my knees, and I saw the company doc at 0815 and he said that I had a possible hernia, He told me to come back and see him in a week and even prescribed Piroxicam for my arthritis pain.He said it was super Motrin I went back to climbing the catwalks and learning the lines. At 1430 I was called to HR where Cliff Sullivan and Francine Cronnin the HR Manager was waiting for me, When I entered Cliff said I was called in because of the 2 incidents that happened over the past 2 weeks that he said I was being let go due to poor Management decisions. I started to explain myself and was cut short by Francine Cronin who handed me a packet saying I have 21 days to agree to its terms and return it, and that the company no longer needs me. I said nothing more, and left. I feel discrimated against because I let my supervisor know by sending him an email saying I have a VA Disability then I turned in my VA Disability rating to medical then was seen by the company Doc and then let go all in a 3 day’s.