The Benefit of Having a Client Before they are Fired

Dec 15, 2017

OUTCOME: Settled at the EEOC stage. (55% do settle)

I received a call from a lawyer that handled Client X's divorce. The lawyer said her former clien was having a meeting the next day 40 miles away for an ADA reasonable accommodation and she needed an ... attorney present. I checked my calendar and I was available. I had her call me (Rules of Professional Conduct requirement.) She, called, we talked for 60 minutes, I showed up the next day and talked some more, then went to the meeting. I sat there, and watched seven (7) people from the employer for two hours go over a request for a 15 minute break in the afternoon if the break was needed because of a mental condition. I said to myself...... What the Hell is this. This meeting should take twenty minutes tops and they should have three people here tops. There were two line managers, a director, three HR persons and the company outside attorney and someone who I never knew who they were. After the meeting they "wanted more information." I took the client for a cup of coffee. i said, how long have they been trying to fire you. She said about six months. I said they really do not know how to do it but they will keep trying. I taught her how to journal, collect documents, tape conversations, ask just the right questions. Now this is hard to believe; this employer too over six months to grant the reasonable accommodations. Two different outside counsel were on the case as the first one quit. Then the second one quit an in the end the third one quit. So over the course of a year, she was written up for things so foolish that attorneys did quit. The client wrote the push-back letters explaining the truth each time. Finally they fired her. We filed the EEOC charge right away, they wrote a 17 page, single spaced, font size 11 Position Statement. Then I and the client spent about 30 hours writing a response taking everything they said apart . Because we had notes, documents, evidence, etc., we were able to disprove each one. Because we were able to have such a strong case we settled it at the EEOC stage for a good multiple of her actual lost pay. But the key was her having an attorney during the process of being fired. NOTE . The initial EEOC officer said we had no case and said we could not look back in time. It was for practice, pattern, and policy. Of course we could. The second EEOC person for the Enforcement Stage, knew the law. This is why you need an attorney.