You Won’t Need a Lawyer

Labour Lawyers not required…

Is it likely that your situation would go to trial in a court of law? Probably not and if that’s the case, you need to weigh your options.

Lawyer's Legal Fees

Once you use a lawyer, there’s no guarantee that you will receive a better outcome; but I can guarantee it will absolutely cost you time and money. In fact, the original termination package offering may have put more dollars in your pocket after you factor in a lawyer taking their cut.

With a lawyer the longer the process takes, the more billable activity the lawyer generates. Any settlement reached is further reduced by the lawyers’ fees and a percentage of the amount which can significantly reduce what you are awarded

Beyond a free consultation a lawyer requires an investment of $1000 – $1,500 just to open your file

At the onset of your termination you have more options and things between you and your previous employer are still on reasonable terms. As soon as you bring a lawyer into play, the dynamic between your and your former employer changes.  Essentially you force the employer into battle mode and any hope of a win-win scenario is no longer an option.

At times the only service a lawyer provides is to get you awarded the legal minimum from employers that didn’t comply with the law in the first place. In that outcome, what you should have been entitled to by law has now been greatly reduced by legal fees. Not a great return.

Perhaps your initial offer included a salary continuance arrangement. This option when administered properly and legally would also include nearly all the additional company benefits on top of your salary increasing the value of the offer. This is a real area of success we have had.

Once you use a lawyer, salary continuance is often no longer an option. The timeframe a lawyer operates in compared to the sign back the employer requires causes the deal to go cold and expire. The company is then forced to issue out the legal minimum as a lump sum based on the employment standards requirements.  At this point it’s now a fight to get anything additional; and time is no longer on your side.  The company is not likely to be on friendly terms with you and will deflect all communications to go through legal counsel. This means you are paying legal fees for any and all communications and correspondence to take place. Getting updates from your lawyer, well, you guessed it, this is billable time too.

Lawyers get paid to provide a service; they get paid for any type of assistance they provide, every letter, every phone call, every minute is billable.  Results don’t usually play a part of what the lawyer does and the ugly truth is the outcome for you doesn’t matter, the lawyer is still making money no matter what.

The simplest of cases take several months to settle and that’s without going to court. During this time you’ll likely have exhausted those minimum notice or severance monies paid and may already be drawing on employment insurance. Not exactly the rapid settlement results you were banking on by using a lawyer. The more time that goes by the more anxious you’ll become to settle for anything more you can get, especially if you are not yet re-employed.

A lawyer should really be your last resort. They may know the law, however, they certainly don’t know the workplace and the language of the employer at the other end. They are also not aware of all the areas that can make up compensation and neglect to uncover the full value that should be calculated in any settlement. Minute details in a company’s administration approach alone can impact your offering significantly, a lawyer is too far removed from this kind of activity.

It is always best to approach a situation in a non-threatening way. Our services certainly have you covered to accomplish that approach. Going to legal counsel at the onset throws out the initial offering and there is no guarantee you will collect anything more than the minimal legal entitlement. There are times after all options have exhausted that legal counsel may become necessary.