If you are bringing a lawsuit against your employer for violating your medical leave rights, there are a number of possible important reasons why you should consider including only FMLA, only CFRA or both claims in your lawsuit, even if they appear to be in many ways similar: Avoiding removal of your case to federal court. If you include the federal FMLA claim, in some cases you employer will have the right to remove your…

One of employers’ most common defense in AWOL termination cases is claiming that the employee was not fired but he “automatically resigned”. The video below talks about one strategy on how this defense can be effectively defeated: [embedded content]…

A accountant, auditor or any other finance professional needs to know a few critical things about proving retaliation case for reporting tax fraud. In those types of cases, you may want to obtain through discovery copies of the relevant tax returns to show fraud. However, the company can avoid producing these tax returns by claiming taxpayer privilege. This privilege precludes the forced disclosure of tax returns and of the information contained in those returns. (SeeSchnabel v.…

One important issue that you should pay a particularly close attention to when entering into an investor rights agreement with the people who are looking to invest into your start-up is the section in that agreement that talks about the degree of involvement that investors will have the right to in the day to day operations of your company. Ideally, you want your investors to have as little control as possible over your operations, and…

It’s important to be aware of the following three typical misconceptions that many wrongful termination claimants have, so that you don’t have the same incorrect ideas about the process of pursuing your case: 1.”This is not about money, but about justice”.  I hear this statement quite often. Clients really want to emphasize that they are not greedy and that they have a higher goal in pursuing their case. However, you must remember that whether you…

In the past, in many states, a restraint on the practice of a trade or occupation, even as applied to a former employee, was deemed to be valid if it was “reasonable”. However, California long ago rejected the so-called ‘rule of reasonableness’ when it enacted Civil Code sections 1673 through 1675, the predecessor sections to Business and Professions Code sections 16600 through 16602.  These legislative enactments ‘settled public policy in favor of open competition, and…

By now,  the California Dynamex decision (Dynamex Opertions West Inc. v. Superior Court) has been thoroughly discussed and analyzed in many publications and legal seminars.  decision. However, here is the big picture that both workers and employers (and especially employers) should keep in mind, as it will help them understand what’s behind this significant ruling. Through the Dynamex decision, California’s highest court sought to address common abuses of workers’ rights that became pretty much an epidemic in…