Assessing Your Case: Workplace Equity (2023)

Many people are surprised to discover that their case may not be worth as much as they think it should be.

The fact is, as devastating as losing your job can be for you, looking at other sections of this site, includingemployment at ease- You will find that many terminations are simply not against the law. Even when firings or other negative employment actions (such as demotion, failure to hire, failure to promote) are illegal, most cases have a modest value at most.

In assigning a value to a case, a lawyer will rely on their knowledge of the case.modelcase, the individualEmployer, It is likejurisdiction(the state and court in which the case will be filed).

The amount of recovery varies with themodelFor example, a disability discrimination case under the Americans with Disabilities Act may allow punitive damages (damages to punish the employer), while an age discrimination case under the Employment Age Discrimination Act will not. recovery of punitive damages. When you eliminate the possibility of recovering punitive damages, the value of the case is reduced.

The recovery amount varies depending on theEmployer, as some employers refuse to settle and tend to be more litigious (willing to fight in court) than others. Also, if the employer is bankrupt or very small, your ability to pay may be very limited.

The recovery amount varies depending on thejurisdiction(state and court) in which the case arises and must be filed. For example, in New York, your potential legal claims are more limited than in a jurisdiction like New Jersey. New York is very employer-friendly and doesn't allow many "wrongful termination" claims, while New Jersey is known for being more employee-friendly.

Some additional criteria that an employment lawyer will use to assess the value of your case are:

Your actual losses, including past and future wages.

The strength of the evidence you have, the evidence that can be obtained through the pretrial process, and the availability of credible witnesses and documents. Is your word against theirs? Is there objective evidence of wrongdoing? To the extent possible, your lawyer will also look at these things from the other party's point of view: what evidence and witnesses do they have to use against you?

The estimated cost of your lawsuit, including attorneys' fees and other costs.

How long will it take to recover. The money you receive today is worth more to you than the money it takes you three years to get back.

An attorney will help you think through these questions, usually as part of an initial consultation.

Many lawyers are reluctant to put a price on a case when they first hear about it because critical information is missing: What is the other party's story and what evidence do they have to back it up?

Many people who have been wronged believe that they now have access to a legal system that will reward them with hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, your attorney cannot promise that your case will be worth a million dollars because, frankly, most are not worth a million dollars.

The fact is that most cases settle well before trial, for much less money than it seems from reading the media reports. Here are some things to consider when evaluating how much your case is likely to be worth:

The vast majority of cases settle without ever going to trial or even filing a lawsuit. The results in these cases are likely to be much lower than cases settled after investing time and money in litigation.

Even when grand prizes are awarded by juries, many of those prizes are immediately reduced by a judge or set at a much lower amount in an effort to avoid appeal. These premium reductions often go unreported or are reported with less fanfare than the original big verdict. Many employment cases are subject to "caps" on damages, depending on the size of the business, which require the judge to reduce awards that exceed the cap amount.

Many employment law issues allow an employee to recover only "compensatory" damages. This means that he will be able to recover the value of his lost wages and some future wages and perhaps his attorney's fees. The grand prize reported in the newspaper typically offers huge punitive damages in non-employment cases. And despite political hype to the contrary, even these huge damage awards are extremely rare events!

High value cases, the proverbial million dollar case, typically require large investments of time, money, resources and energy to achieve these recoveries. Very few cases settle for large sums of money without coming at least very close to trial after many months or years of preparation.

Big verdicts. Great rewards. Garotinho takes the lead. They are great stories and the media certainly have an obligation to denounce them.

However, because of this focus on big prizes, people who read the stories are often misled about the reality of the value of the cases. To consider:

In 85% of the stories, the media reports cases where employees win. In federal court, plaintiffs only win about 32% of the time.

The average reported verdict of $1,100,000 is much higher than the actual average of $150,000. For cases settled after litigation begins but before a verdict is reached, the media reports an average win of approximately $3,640,000. The true average is around $125,000.Fuente

Cases of "slam dunk" rarely exist. This point cannot be overstated. You may have documents to support your position, people promising to testify on your behalf, and what appears to be a clear case of injustice. However, the reality is that the document that fumes is very rare, injustice is not always even typically illegal, and what people say they will do on your behalf often changes when they are asked to speak in public and put his own job at risk. .

Your family, friends, and colleagues may have opinions about the value of your case, but they often don't understand the obstacles and expense involved in obtaining a high-value settlement.

There are no certainties in the law. Sometimes, despite having a good lawyer, a case ends without a cash reward. Discoveries about the facts or law made after the case has started can change the way a case unfolds, as can matters completely outside the case, such as the appointment of a judge who is known to be "bad." for plaintiffs or a state agency it takes years to adjudicate a matter.

You don't have to be a pessimist; just be realistic. Focus on being compensated for the wrong done to you, not on reaping a fortune. That means working with the attorney you've selected to determine the real costs and real benefits of pursuing a matter, and doing everything possible to ignore the publicity you'll inevitably hear at work, at home, and on the news.