Employer Legal Rights | Protection Against Wrongful Termination Suits

Legal Rights For An Employer When Facing An Employee Termination

Often it appears that employers don’t have any rights. It's true an employer will lose 70% of all wrongful dismissal cases (from"Getting Fired" by Steven Mitchell Sack). Recently, the average wrongful termination jury award has been $536,927!

Here’s what this means for business owners, managers and any employer and your rights.

If you go to court, there's a good chance you'll lose and get a large financial penalty. For entrepreneurs, losing a wrongful dismissal lawsuit could mean bankruptcy or your former worker owning a big chunk of your company. He or she could become your new partner.

Why can this happen to you? Here are three reasons.

First, the jury is compassionate for the terminated worker. Every jury member has had an employer take advantage of him or her. The juror may have even been a victim of a layoff or forced termination. Therefore, it's the jury's opportunity to aid the little guy against the big, bad employer (that’s you!)

So, even when your case against the employee is unquestionable, you may still lose the lawsuit. I know this isn't soothing, but you're going to have to live with this fact. Therefore, it’s best to stay out of court if possible.

You do this by writing a separation letter with a release and convincing the employee to sign it. This stops the employee from ever suing you.

Second, the supervisor often terminates the worker without adequate documentation. Here’s a rule you need should paste up on the wall:

"If it's not written down, the jury isn't going to believe you."

Therefore, you must create a case against the problem employee before you terminate. You must demonstrate you warned the employee about the poor conduct and performance. Then you must prove you gave him chances to get better. After 3 chances, you're warranted in terminating the problem worker.

By following this procedure, even a unfriendly jury to the employer must acknowledge your treatment of the employee was just.

Third, an employer will often a lose wrongful dismissal suit because they fire for illegal and dumb reasons... or at least an plaintiff’s attorney can make it look that way. For example, you should never fire a woman because she's has a child(illegal) or because she likes Washington Redskins (stupid). The jury will go hard on you for the unlawful reason and feel compassion for the employee on the dumb reason. Either way, you'll probably shell out a $536,927 jury award.

To learn about firings and layoffs, take a look at the Employee Termination Guidebook. It’ll teach you how to write separation agreements, discipline warnings and reports on gross misconduct. It also gives illegal termination reasons you must steer clear of. Be ready to be surprised. You probably don’t know all these and it is so easy to run afoul of the law. Click employer rights to find out more.

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