Attorney Fees

Can’t Afford a Lawyer? What You Need to Know About Attorney Fees and Employment Law

It’s hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on the news these days without hearing about a legal case brought by an employee against their employer. Unfortunately, the pandemic gave rise to a whole new group of employment lawsuits, which experts expect to keep increasing this year.

The last few years have seen workers waking up to employer abuses and illegal acts. If you’re someone who would like to speak to an employment attorney about your work situation but are afraid of the potential costs, this post is for you. You might be surprised at how little financial risk you have to take — between the way lawyer’s fees are structured, fee shifting laws in California, and the opportunity for a free consultation before committing to moving forward.

Cost Is Often a Legitimate Concern

At Employee Law Group, we get a lot of phone calls, emails, and Yelp messages asking for our help to recover unpaid wages or pursue a claim for discrimination or retaliation. Even in the best cases — the ones that seem ironclad in favor of the employee — the potential client will often ask quietly, “How much do you charge?”

It’s a reasonable question. Nobody wants to put themselves on the hook for possibly tens of thousands of dollars for what might be a comparatively small amount of money. For example, if you believe your old boss owes you $500 in unpaid commissions, hiring a lawyer for $2,000 right off the bat doesn’t make sense. It’s like filing a home insurance claim for $250 in roof damages when you have a $1,000 deductible. In the end, you lose money.

We get it. That’s why our answer is usually “We don’t charge you anything, unless we recover on your behalf.” And the best part? A lot of the time, your former employer has to pay our fees. Read on to learn why that is.

Fee Shifting in California

California law is favorable to employees in a lot of ways. One of the biggest ways is called fee shifting. Normally in a lawsuit, each side pays its own way. But California’s legislature decided that was unfair in cases where the employees have been cheated out of their wages, have their rights abused on the job, or have faced retaliation or harassment at work.

In those cases, an employer who is found liable for a worker’s damages also has to pay the employee’s attorney fees and costs. It’s a powerful disincentive for bosses to mistreat and cheat their workers, but we still get plenty of incoming calls from workers who need our help.

Types of Cases Where Fee Shifting Typically Applies

What are some of the claims that require your boss or former boss to pay our legal fees, if we can help you recover what you’re rightfully owed?

Unpaid wages

If you don’t get your wages, salary, earned commissions, bonuses, guaranteed benefits, or other compensation that counts as wages, your employer owes you those wages, plus interest, plus the fees and costs of recovering them. If you’re paid less than the minimum wage or you work overtime hours but don’t get overtime pay, that also means you get your attorney fees covered for getting the proper pay you have earned.

Discrimination, harassment, and retaliation

If you’ve been mistreated at work on the basis of your race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or other protected category, your employer owes you damages for the harm you suffered, plus attorney fees and associated costs.

Meal and rest break penalties

In most cases, unless you are a properly exempt employee, you are entitled to three breaks in your workday. You get 10 minutes in the first four hours and 10 minutes in the last four hours of your shift for rest, plus 30 minutes for lunch. These breaks are completely free from any job duties or work-related interruptions. If you don’t get these breaks, you’re supposed to be paid one hour’s pay for missed rest breaks and one hour’s pay for missed lunch. If you don’t get the breaks or the pay, you get your attorney fees paid for recovering them.

Reimbursement for business expenses

If your boss requires you to pay out of your pocket for supplies necessary to do your job, you’re supposed to be reimbursed. For example, if you pay for gas to make deliveries or pick up supplies, if you have to buy uniforms, or if you have to use your personal mobile phone for work, your boss is supposed to pay you back. If they don’t, they have to pay your lawyer to help you recover the money they owe you.

How to Help Win a Case Against an Employer

The above are just a few of the claims that lead to fee shifting and help you recover what you’re owed without having to reach into your pocket to pay a lawyer’s fees. But they require you to prove your case. Here’s some advice on how to do that.

Keep track of your work hours

When you work, make notes of whether you’re technically on the clock or not. After-hours phone calls, texts, and emails count as work time, so you should be paid for them, if you’re keeping track. Also make notes of when you can’t take rest and meal breaks and don’t get paid the penalty. If your boss isn’t keeping proper track of your hours, your notes may be the only evidence of how much you worked.

Make a paper trail

If you’ve been harassed or discriminated against, it helps to have documentation of this. Make complaints in writing, preferably in emails, and print a copy for yourself. Name any witnesses in your complaints and keep copies of any responses you get. If you’re fired, you will lose access to your work email, so it’s important for you to keep separate copies.

Keep receipts

Get in the habit of doing this for every business expense you pay for from your own pocket. Whether it’s plane tickets or hotels for work travel, internet costs and printer cartridges for working from home, or buying batteries to power work gadgets, keep receipts, submit them regularly for reimbursement, and make copies of your requests. That way, you can show what you’re owed and when you requested to be paid back.

Employee Law Group Is Here to Help You, and Your First Consultation Is Free

We understand the concern about how much attorneys can cost. Some people think lawyers walk around in $2,000 suits and $500 shoes and charge their clients sky-high rates to pay for it. It’s true of some lawyers, but not all, and it’s certainly not true of the attorneys at Employee Law Group. In 30 years of serving our clients in Southern California, we have always focused on providing value in our legal expertise and strong advocacy to help our clients recover what is rightfully theirs. And when the law permits, we pass the costs of our services onto the employer.

If you think you need an employment attorney and want to talk to one of our experts, call 310-606-0065 or contact Employee Law Group for a free consultation. We will listen to your concerns, help you understand the law that applies to your circumstances, and assist you in deciding the best way to defend your rights and get what you earned.