The New York Times today reported on the growing number of employment lawsuits in the wake of the economic crisis. This article, while informative, is hardly shocking. Lawsuits generally occur when tolerance for conflict and risk is high. Lawsuits come when there is little hope of salvaging a relationship. When an employment relationship ends, there is little risk involved with an employee evaluating their legal rights. The relationship is essentially destroyed. And once a lawyer gets involved, employer misconduct will no longer be swept under the rug. Then the lawsuits start.
I disagree wholeheartedly with Lawrence Z. Lorber’s quote that “[p]eople take legal action out of desperation as it becomes more difficult to find new employment”. Instead, I think people take legal action because they feel a sense of injustice for the way they were treated and want to investigate whether they may have been subject to unlawful employment practices. From my perspective as a plaintiff’s lawyer, I would say, “companies take illegal actions out of desperation as it becomes more difficult for them to fulfill their moral obligations to employees.”
This all said, I still believe that plaintiff and defense attorneys need to be particularly mindful of the realities of the cases they are handling. Cases will not be won or lost on the current status of the economy. Instead, cases will be won or lost depending on whether the employer violated applicable employment laws during the statutory period.
