31 July

Sticky

Dallas employment lawyers with free consultations?

in Employee rights, Employment Litigation, Wrongful termination

Dallas employment lawyers sometimes offer free consultations in their Dallas, Texas law firms. Most of the well-known employment attorneys in Dallas and Fort Worth do not offer free consultations. They may charge a fee of $75-300. Some lawyers offer free consultations but these may be personal injury lawyers or other trial attorneys who take on all types of cases. While many of these attorneys are excellent lawyers, they may not have expertise in employment law. Employment lawsuits like wrongful termination, employment discrimination and FMLA claims are very technical. Not having expertise as a Dallas employment lawyer can be harmful to...

08 June

Sticky

EEOC mediation and lawsuit settlement amounts in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Age Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, Employment Litigation, Racial Discrimination, Religious Discrimination, Sex discrimination, Wrongful termination

EEOC mediations and lawsuits often end in settlement of claims for employment discrimination in Dallas and Fort Worth, including wrongful termination. An important question for many employees filing employment discrimination claims with the EEOC is what they can expect in a settlement. Many employment discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC in Dallas settle either in mediation with the EEOC or after filing a lawsuit but before trial. Settlements at these two stages happen at critically different stages of an employment discrimination claim so their settlement values are, collectively, different. We will discuss the average EEOC mediation or lawsuit settlement averages...

09 September

Sticky

Can my Texas employer fire me for doing what my manager told me to do?

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Employee rights, Retaliation, Wrongful termination

Here's a tricky situation: you follow a specific instruction from your manager or a company policy. Then your employer fires you. Can this happen for following orders? Unfortunately, in most cases the answer: yes. Seems bizarre--and it is--but this is the nature of the at-will employment relationship. In an at-will employment relationship the employer can discipline an employee, up to termination, for a bad reason--even no reason at all. The employer can fire you for doing exactly what it instructed you to do. This is among the most glaring proof that the at-will employment relationship is a legal fiction. Texas law treats the at-will employment relationship...

19 February

Sticky

Difference between attorney and lawyer in Dallas-Fort Worth

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Divorce, Employment Litigation, Uncontested Divorce, Wrongful termination

People often used the term lawyer and attorney interchangeably in the United States to denote people who work as legal professionals. Most do so without giving much thought as to why our profession has two labels for the same legal job. These terms have slightly different meanings. (And not just because lawyer jokes tend to use the word lawyer and not attorney.) You might also know other terms or phrases used to reference lawyers or attorneys such as counselor, solicitor, barrister, attorney at law, attorney and counselor or special counsel. In this country these terms generally have no specific legal meaning. At...

11 January

Sticky

Texas Open Carry Law and Your Employment in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Employee rights, Wrongful termination

On January 1, 2016 the new open carry law goes into effect across Texas. You may have seen coverage of the open carry protests around Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas and other cities. Much of that coverage was over people openly carrying assault rifles. The new open carry law does not change the status of long guns, rather it extends the rights to carry handguns. Although the open carry law is not explicitly an employment issue it will affect most employees in Texas because most workplaces will becomes subject to open carry rights in addition to existing handgun possession rights in...

24 November

Sticky

Can I take FMLA leave and leave under the ADA at the same time in Texas?

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Disability Discrimination, Employee rights

Sometimes an employee has a medical condition or disability that qualifies for FMLA leave and leave under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a reasonable accommodation. The issue how to protect the employee's job through protected leave under the ADA and FMLA is complicated. Each law provides a different set of rights to leave and overlap. Employers often get this issue wrong because they are unaware of ADA reasonable accommodation rules or do not understand that the ADA may apply to FMLA leave requests. HR departments may not be staffed with employees who thoroughly understand FMLA and ADA rights. They...

24 August

Sticky

What is the employment at will doctrine in Texas?

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Employee rights, Employment Litigation, Wrongful termination

All states except Montana follow the employment at will doctrine for employees. Although the employment at will doctrine governs employment relationships in Texas and most of the country since the days of the Founding Fathers, there is still a great deal of confusion about what this means. Part of the continuing confusion is the growing body of law modifying the employment at will doctrine. Understanding the employment at will doctrine is vital for any employee employed in an at will relationship. Today's post will help unravel some of the confusion, particularly for those who have been wrongfully terminated in Texas. What...

18 August

Sticky

What is the statute of limitations to sue an employer in Texas? Fort Worth employment attorney explains

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Age Discrimination, Defamation, Employee rights, Employment Litigation, Hiring & Promotion, Racial Discrimination, Religious Discrimination, Retaliation, Retirement Plan/401k/Pension, Sex discrimination, Wage & Hour, Wrongful termination

In Texas an employment lawsuit may arise under a combination of federal, state and local laws. This is true whether the lawsuit is for wrongful discharge, pay or benefits issues, discrimination, FMLA, or other employment claims. All forms of employment claims carry a limitations period. The statute of limitations is not universal for each of these claims. Technical procedural rules may determine the calculation of the statute of limitations to a particular employment claim. The best thing to do if you believe you have an employment claim is to contact Texas employment lawyers. Today's post will discuss some of the limitations periods for common employment claims. Wage/Pay/Compensation...

03 August

Sticky

7 misconceptions about Texas employment law: Dallas employment lawyer

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Employee rights, Employment Litigation, Wrongful termination

Employment law is probably the area of law most misunderstood of those that affect people on a daily basis. There is a lot of information floating around that is inaccurate or inapplicable to Texas law. Each state has its own set of labor and employment laws. What is true in one state may not be true here in Texas. As an employment lawyer in Texas in Dallas and Fort Worth there is only so much I can do to help people who have been lawfully fired over a misconception of Texas employment law, particularly about wages, overtime, harassment, discrimination and FMLA rights....

09 February

Sticky

Can you count on the EEOC to file a lawsuit for you in Texas? Fort Worth employment lawyer discusses

Posted by Adam Kielich

in Age Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, Employee rights, Employment Litigation, Racial Discrimination, Religious Discrimination, Retaliation, Sex discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its 2014 performance report recently with some disappointing results about how charges of discrimination (the employment discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC) resolve. Of the 88,778 private sector charges filed the EEOC "resolved" 87,442 of those charges. That does not mean a favorable result occurred for the charging party. It just means the EEOC decided whether there was probable cause to say unlawful discrimination occurred. Out of the 87,442 charges resolved, the EEOC mediated 10,221 charges and resolved 7,846 by mediation. However, just 133 charges resulted in litigation filed by the EEOC with 105 of those...

wrongful termination Tag