Employee Law and Litigation

Rich Cassidy Law represents employees in employment law matters. Its lawyers have counseled more than a thousand employees. Our employment law and litigation attorneys understand the legal complexities involved in such cases.

If you are having employment trouble, we understand that your circumstances are likely very difficult and that you need competent legal help.

Sadly, in the United States, the law is not very favorable to employees, and as a result relatively few lawyers are available to help employees. We live in an employment-at-will nation, where unless the employee has an explicit contract (few do), an employer can fire an employee at any time and for any reason.

There are many exceptions to this rule and representing employees in employment cases means finding the applicable exceptions and using them. The laws that prohibit discrimination, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Vermont Fair Employment Practices Act, require that workplace be free of discrimination (and harassment) based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, place of birth, or age or against a qualified individual with a disability. As such, they provide the most protection. But there are many other exceptions to the at-will doctrine. For example, if not effectively disclaimed, many employers have limited their own discretion in employment handbooks.

A partial list of other leading sources of employee rights includes:

• The doctrine of promissory estoppel
• Wage payment statutes
• Wage and hour statutes including overtime and minimum wage claims
• Drug testing laws
• State and federal false claims acts
• OSHA/VOSHA statutes and regulations
• The health care worker whistleblower statute
• Specific federal whistleblower statutes
• The Polygraph Protection Act
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act
• The Family and Medical Leave Acts
• Statutes protecting employees on jury duty
• Statutes protecting employees whose wages have been garnished
• Statutes protecting the employees who claim workers compensation benefits
• Statutes protecting the exercise of “protected concerted activity”
• Public employment just cause requirements
• Collective Bargaining Agreement just cause provisions
• Other well-established public policies

Many employees need legal advice from an employment lawyer in Vermont in order to understand their legal rights and obligations. Rich Cassidy Law regularly advises employees about their confidentiality obligations, duties of loyalty, workplace investigations, and proposed or existing agreements including employment contracts, covenants not to compete, and severance agreements. The firm also provides absolutely confidential coaching for employees in difficult ongoing employment relationships.

In many instances, Rich Cassidy Law negotiates or advises on employment contracts, employee severance packages, and golden parachutes. The firm also represents employees in disputes relating to non-competition and confidentiality agreements. We are known as leading Vermont employment law and litigation attornies in Vermont and surrounding areas.

At Rich Cassidy Law, we focus on advising and representing employees. Unfortunately, we simply can’t evaluate new employment cases without charge. There are simply too many such cases and they are too complex to do on that basis. It typically takes approximately two hours to evaluate an employment problem and formulate a plan for remediating it. Within that time frame we can usually conduct an initial conference, review the basic documents, if applicable, and provide you with a brief email confirming our initial views and advice.

We provide these services under a Limited Scope Representation Agreement for at 2-hour minimum fee. Rich’s minimum fee is $650. Matt Shagam charges a minimum fee of $390. If you don’t use all the time, it carries forward for other work on the matter. If additional time is required, it is available at our regular hourly rates ($325 an hour for Rich/$195 an hour for Matt).

For your convenience, we accept most major credit cards.

Few employees have the financial resources to take on full scale employment litigation on an hourly basis. After a thorough evaluation, Rich Cassidy Law takes on strong employment cases with significant damages on a contingent fee basis, or occasionally, at a reduced hourly rate with a success fee.

Many statutory employment claims allow our clients to recover their attorney’s fees from their employers.

Employees should not communicate with Rich Cassidy Law through an employer provided email account, as this may waive the employee’s attorney/client privilege. Call instead for a face to face or video conference.

We need you to identify your employer and the individuals who appear to have decision-making authority about you so that we can ensure that no conflict of interest exists before we confer or review any documents.

It’s helpful if we can review any employment contract you have entered, any applicable employee handbook, or any other important documents, once you have retained us.

Contact us today to set up an appointment to discuss your employment law questions and learn more about how we can help you. We are available during regular business hours and by appointment at other times. You can reach us by phone at (802) 864-8144 or through this link to set up an appointment
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Click Here To View “Civil and Human Rights” Article by Richard T. Cassidy

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(802) 864-8144