California Labor Laws: Asserting Your Employee Rights

Many employees when experiencing a labor violation are confused as to where to turn and typically take one of four paths.

1. A very common path and usually the most treacherous, is doing nothing at all. When an employee is hesitant to hire California overtime lawyers or California labor law attorneys to handle a situation, it usually gets worse before it gets better. Complacency will typically cause labor violations to become more frequent. California labor law attorneys have found that “where there is smoke there is fire” and when one violation is discovered, many others are found.

2. The next course of action frequently taken by employees experiencing a California labor law violation is attempting to handle the problem “through the Employer’s channels or procedures”. This course of action has risks of its own and one of the biggest dangers in filing a formal Employer complaint “though the proper channels” is the risk of retaliation. Employees do not realize that by filing an official complaint they place their employers on guard and exposed to liability if the employer retaliates. Once a complaint is filed for a labor violation, if the employer then retaliates and demotes, harasses, suspends or fires the employee, that employer exposes themselves to additional liability.

3. Another option an employee may exercise is going to the labor board. The California Labor Board does however have limitations, in that they will not purse the 4th years (Unfair Business Practice Claim) as a private attorney would and therefore they may shorten the amount of their claim. Furthermore, the California Labor Board handles very small claims and may not always pursue the employee’s claims as vigorously as California overtime lawyers might. The California Labor Board also has a serious limitation in that if either party prevails, the other party has the option to appeal and have the case start all over. Once this occurs, and employee will need to find a California labor law attorney to represent them and also faces the risk that if they lose this appeal the loser must pay the winning parties attorney fees and court costs. On the other hand, if an employee hires California overtime lawyers to handle the claim from the outset and prevails on any part of the claim, the Employer must pay the Employee’s attorney fees. This is a huge advantage. As you can see the California Labor Board has severe limitations and is designed for smaller disputes where the employee does not mind some uncertainty of outcome. While the California Labor Board is free of charge- sometimes you get what you pay for!

4. California overtime lawyers and California labor law attorneys may be the best option when it comes to the enforcement of California labor laws. When an employee hires an attorney who is experienced in California overtime laws, the outcome may be better than testing the waters at the California Labor Board and surely much better than doing nothing at all. Case law and statutes are constantly evolving and knowledgeable California overtime lawyers or California labor law attorneys can in many instances pinpoint the applicable laws and cases that could bring an employee to victory. Even better, if your attorney wins, your employer must pay his or her legal fees!

In closing, an employee has several choices. Hiring a qualified professional to protect your interests is imperative if you want good results. Interview several California labor law attorneys and find out who you feel most comfortable with.

About the Author

Lars Vheltzer is a freelance journalist who frequently contributes and comments on issues impacting the legal services provided by California labor law attorneys relative to State regulations enforced by the California Labor Board as well as topics affecting California employees who may be best served by retaining California overtime lawyers.

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Will there be decent employment prospects for an entertainment lawyer, and is this area interesting?

I live in Los Angeles, and I’m considering going to law school. I want to go to UCLA or USC, and both have recently incorporated an entertainment law section into their law schools. This seems like it would be a pretty interesting area of law to go into, even though a lot of it would deal with contracts. Despite this, would it be easier to get a job in this particular section of law? I’ve never heard about many entertainment lawyers, since most go into corporate, civil lit, labor, criminal, or tax law. So would it be less competitive? And how much could you probably make starting out in Los Angeles to a medium or large firm? Thanks for any help!

Entertainment law sounds a lot more interesting than it actually is, it’s like practicing any other type of law. Some attorneys do contracts (called transactional or corporate law), some litigate. There are both types of entertainment attorneys. Generally, if you work in biglaw you work for corporations, like studios, and if you work at smaller firms, you work for the talent. Some attorneys practice IP law, intellectual property, which is a whole different ballgame, but some consider it entertainment law. Some attorneys work in-house for studios, shorter hours than law firms, but the pay is low.

Entertainment law is a very competitive field, because attorneys want to get into it, thinking it will be glamorous. It’s not. Talent often doesn’t pay, even when you win their case, apparently you should be honored just to work for them. (OK, not all, but it is a big problem!) Working for the studios is just like working for any other big corporation. Often attorneys will not only do entertainment law, but other types of law as well.

Right now first year attorneys at biglaw make $160,000 plus bonus, although because of the economy they may start lower soon, maybe $140,000 and bonuses may be on hold for a year or so. At a small or medium firm in LA a first year attorney might make $80,000 – $100,000, or even less. Biglaw has been mostly lockstep compensation, although that may change for a few years. Generally, a 7th year at biglaw would make around $240,000 plus bonus, maybe $40,000+ for those with good billing hours (over 2100).

If you want to be considered for a biglaw job out of school, you basically must go to a top tier law school. Being an attorney is generally a 12 hour a day job, if you want any success or if you work at biglaw. Except for the worst years, one can expect to bill at least 2000 hours, and even right now I know plenty of attorneys who are on track for that or more. While hours may be shorter at smaller firms, the compensation will be much less. And you’ll probably have law school debt to pay….

You should see about getting an intern job at a firm or at least spending some time at a firm to see if it’s the direction you want to go in. It’s a lot of work, sometimes painfully boring (especially at first, boxes and boxes of documents to go through every day), but some love it.

Good luck!

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I have an employment/law issue?

I want to setup my own Business in the same line as my current employer albeit on a smaller scale initially. The problem is that under the contract I have signed it forbids me to contact current suppliers and customers for six months or to get a third party to act on my behalf.
My question is how enforceable is this contract , and what action could they take against me ? Would it be bluffing to frighten me from setting up my own Business ??
thanks in advance for your answers

It is totally enforcable, they can sue you for breach of contract and I would think they are not bluffing at all, business is hard in the current climate and we all want to protect what we have worked for, all you could do is offer a slightly different service/products so that you are not exactly the same, maybe be more bespoke or exclusive, but i would get proper legal advice before you do anything, also if your current employer approachable? a casual converstion may be enlightening for you, as you, as in yes they think there is room for 2 cafes on the high street if they are targeting different markets. good luck

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