Avoiding HR Litigation
for HR Professionals & Business Owners
Employees make the best dates. You don't have to pick them up and they're always tax-deductible. -- Andy Warhol
Avoid HR and Employment Litigation
You know enough not to take advice from Warhol. So you listen to your legal counsel--who of course encourages compliance.* But compliance is not enough.
How to Discourage Those Without Claims from
Litigating "Perceived" Wrongs.
Although he would not take such cases, Mr. Kroner found that many current and former employees sought representation for perceived wrongs notwithstanding that there was no basis in law or fact for their perceived case. Unfortunately, there are many lawyers who do represent such clients.
Why do employees bring such claims and what can be done to discourage them? The easy answer is to attribute all such claims to greed and dishonesty. But a superficial approach offers little to help an HR professional discourage these claims.
Sophisticated HR professionals can do more than call names. They can and do discourage employees from filing frivolous claims.
The workshop explores various practical, easily implemented and inexpensive employment practices that discourage frivolous claims. Relative to most of Jonathan's other workshops, this workshop is based on the more traditional cognitive approaches.
How to Create an Environment in which
Employees With Claims Do Not Litigate.
As a lawyer who handled mostly plaintiffs' employment claims, including opt-in class actions, Jonathan Kroner developed insights into a class of employees distinct from those described above--people with bona fide cases who chose to not seek legal recourse.
As a lawyer who made a living representing employees with legitimate claims, Mr. Kroner was highly motivated to learn why employees with legitimate claims chose to not litigate those claims. What he learned is the basis of this part of the workshop which provides an employer checklist of easily implemented policies and practices.
Insights into this type of employee should be of interest to proactive HR professionals since, notwithstanding HR and upper management's policy of strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the law, there are still incidents when an employer runs afoul of a rule or regulation. This can be due to the complexity of the rules, changes in rules, or lower management or staff's noncompliance--inadvertent or otherwise.
Mr. Kroner has seen no published research or other report that includes these practical steps to Creating an Environment in which Employees With Claims Do Not Litigate.
* You should contact an attorney in your jurisdiction to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue. If you contact us through this site, you should understand that the communication does not create an attorney-client relationship. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon web sites or promotional materials.
By the time an employer is hiring defense counsel it has already "lost" due to the waste of time and energy and talent. Sophisticated employers understand the cost savings of planning to avoiding problems, rather than fixing problems, such as defending a lawsuit.
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