FETT & FIELDS, P.C.
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
805 E. Main St., Pinckney, MI 48169 734-954-0100 FAX 734-954-0762 E-MAIL
James K. FettLawrence A. Fields
Joshua R. Fields / Maureen K. Proffitt
Paralegal
October 9, 2018
To Whom It May Concern:
Thank you for contacting our office regarding a possible employment lawsuit. Please be assured that we will do everything in our power to quickly and professionally evaluate your claim.
To assist us in this process, we ask that you:
1.Complete the enclosed questionnaire;
2.Assemble the documents identified in your questionnaire;
3.Obtain a copy of your personnel file from your employer/ex-employer by submitting the completed enclosed release form. Your employer is obligated to provide your personnel file under the Bullard-Plawecki Right to Know Act. Simply submit the enclosed form to your employer and they will provide you with your file. Note: your employer has the right to charge you for copying costs.
4.Prepare a chronology of events leading up to and following your discharge, harassment or discrimination.
The chronology of events should be in the following form:
(EXAMPLE)
1/1/90Hired
1/1/91Received excellent evaluation
2/3/91Refused to alter payroll records or refused sexual advances or supervisor made racist remarks, etc.
3/1/93Terminated with no warning
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You should provide as much detail as possible in your chronology.
Once you have completed these tasks, please forward the questionnaire, documents and your personnel file to our office at your earliest convenience. If you do not receive your personnel file within two (2) weeks, simply submit your materials to us without the personnel file. Remember, submit only copies of your documents because we shred all such documents if we do not accept your case.
If based on our review, we believe we can successfully prosecute a lawsuit against your former employer, we will meet to discuss the particulars.
We wish to emphasize that it is extremely important that you provide all of the material that you can because we cannot give you good advice without it. Also,make sure you provide the requested information regarding witnesses. The sooner you provide us with the requested materials, the sooner we can give you an opinion about your case.
We look forward to reviewing your materials. At the conclusion of our review, we will either contact you by telephone or in writing to let you know whether or not we should go further with an office interview. Please allow our office approximately two (2) weeks to review and respond to your information from the date that it is received back at our office.
Very Truly Yours,
FETT & FIELDS, P.C.
James K. Fett
James K. Fett
Enclosure
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INITIAL CLIENT INTERVIEW
1.GENERAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Name
Address
City, State, Zip
County
Telephone No.
E-mail:
Date of Birth
Social Security No.
Who or how were you referred to our firm?
Last grade completed in school
Health/Medical problems
2.CLIENT’S COMPLAINT
Against
Employer/Ex-Employer (circle which one):
Address
CityStateZip
County
Telephone No.
Date of Hire
Were you terminated or did you resign?
Date of termination, if any
Position terminated from Salary
Who decided to terminate you? ; Position?
Were you an at-will employee?
New job, if any(s) Salary
Date of Hire at new job
Why do you think your employer terminated you?
3.Are/were you a member of a Union? If yes, did you file a grievance and what is the status?
Are you a veteran ?
4.Do you have a written contract?
5.Have you signed any agreement with your employer to arbitrate any claims arising out of your employment?
______
6.Have you agreed to any shortened statute of limitations (time period) in which you may file a claim?
______
7.Are you willing to sign releases regarding your tax returns (related to your economic damages) andmedical records (related to non-economic damages)?
______
8.TERMINATION
When were you notified
In writing/oral
By whom (who was present and who spoke, state their position with the company):
Reason given:
9.Information on individual replacing you - Age
Date of hire
Date of replacement
Former Job title
10.Are you as qualified and experienced as the person who replaced you?
11.Are you aware of any statement made with regard to your age, sex, race, weight, height, or medical condition, etc.? Your longevity of service? The cost of keeping you on the payroll? If so, please detail the statement, indicating whether it was oral or written, and, if oral, whether there are cooperative witnesses who will testify. (List names):
12.Same as above for any other employees in the company:
13.Was there an economic cutback by the company at the time of your termination?
14.What defenses will the company use to justify your termination? (Economic cut back, performance, sales quotas, etc.)
15.What facts will you use as a rebuttal?
16.Have you ever been treated differently than others have been in similar circumstances? If so, please identify the name, sex, race and age of the salaried people who have been given preferential treatment and give a brief description of the similarities which exist between your situation and theirs and the nature of the preferential treatment which they have received:
17.Is your case part of a pattern of discrimination? If it is, describe the facts which support this view:
18.Have you ever been terminated from a job prior to the issue you are raising with this firm? (_____Yes/_____No). If yes, state the employer name and the year of the termination.
19.On any previous occasion, have you sued or have you been sued? If yes, please describe:
20.Have you seen any other attorneys regarding the issue at hand? If so, please give names and whether or not they agreed to take your case:
21.What embarrassing facts would you not want to come out if this case goes to trial (e.g. conviction of a crime, resume fraud etc.)?
22.Did you make any false statements in your resume or employment application? If so, please describe:
23.Does you employer/ex-employer have enough assets to a pay a judgment should your suit be successful?
24.Has your employer filed for bankruptcy or do you have any information indicating that your employer has filed or may file for bankruptcy? If yes, please provide a brief summary of the information you possess, including, if known, any basic information about your employer’s bankruptcy action (e.g. court in which the case was filed, date of filing and case number).
______
______
______
25. Have you filed for bankruptcy or are you contemplating filing for bankruptcy? If you have filed for bankruptcy, please provide basic information about your bankruptcy action (e.g. court in which your case was filed, date of filing and case number).
______
______
______
26.Do you currently have any claims pending against the employer? If yes:
Where
Status of Complaint
27.Documents
Do you have records of:
salary (from hire to termination)
complaints filed with MDCR, EEOC, MESC
employee handbook
performance evaluations
employment contracts
If yes, please provide us with a copy.
28.Possible Witnesses:Please attach a list of witnesses thatwould be supportive of your case and who would speak to me or our private investigator. Give their names, addresses and phone numbers. NOTE: IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT WE HAVE THIS INFORMATION TO EVALUATE YOUR CASE.
29.Benefits:Have you lost benefits because of your termination? If yes, please check those benefits.
- pension
- profit sharing
- medical
- dental
- optical
- life insurance
- disability insurance
30.What is the total amount of money that you have lost to date as a result of your termination?
31.Have you sought medical or psychological treatment/counseling as a result of this claim?
If yes, when (first time)
With whom (name, address, telephone):
Reason:
MedicalPsychological
Had you sought medical/psychological treatment prior to the event(s) which triggered this claim?
If yes, was it for problems unrelated to the claim?
32.Please provide a resume or previous employment history.
33.Marital Status
Number of dependents and ages
Was your spouse employed at the time of termination? If so, where?
Is your spouse currently employed? If so, where?
34. Have you signedany release or waiver of claims, or signed a severance agreement with a release or wavier clause? If yes, please provide the release, waiver or severance agreement.
35. Do you have any work-related documents on your personal computer(s)? ______
If yes, please indicate generally what types of work-related documents are on your computer(s)?
______
36.Do you post about your employment on Facebook or any other internet social media site?
______
37.Have you ever been charged with or convicted of a crime? (_____ Yes/_____ No). If yes, provide details below.
38.You should understand that if we file a lawsuit on your behalf, your background will be extensively investigated by the other side. Is there anything we should know about your history prior to agreeing to represent you? Is there anything that would be damaging or embarrassing that may be revealed?
39.Do you have notes/diary/journal/email/correspondence regarding your claim(s)? (_____ Yes/ _____ No)
40.Prepare a chronology of events leading up to and following your discharge, harassment or discrimination.
The chronology of events should be in the following form:
(EXAMPLE)
1/1/90Hired
1/1/91Received excellent evaluation
2/3/91Refused to alter payroll records or refused sexual advances or supervisor made racist remarks, etc.
3/1/93Terminated with no warning
You should provide as much detail as possible in your chronology.
Fett & Fields, P.C.
805 E. Main St.
Pinckney, MI48169
Office: 734-954-0100
Fax: 734-954-0762
Visit our website at
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REQUEST FOR PERSONNEL FILE
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Please consider this communication my request for, a full and complete copy of my personnel file pursuant to the Bullard-Plawecki Right to Know Act, MCLA § 423.501, etseq.
Name:
Address:
Social Security No.:
Signature:
Return requested information to the above name and address.
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WILL I TAKE YOUR CASE
ON A CONTINGENT FEE BASIS?
I.DISCHARGE CASES
Employment cases are difficult and time consuming. It is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty whether your case will be successful until the case is well underway.
If we are successful, your former employer may appeal. Even if the appeal is unsuccessful, the appeal delays for years the compensation that both of us expect from a positive jury verdict.
If we lose, either because the judge dismisses the case or because the jury does not agree with our position, my firm will receive no compensation for its efforts. We as lawyers would not be in practice very long if we did not choose our cases carefully.
Therefore, before we agree to assume the risk of taking your case on contingency, we must be satisfied that (a) there is a good probability of prevailing; and (b) the amount that we ultimatelymay recover is sufficient to cover our costs and give us a fair return for the time we spend on a case.
We determine whether your case has a good probability of success by interviewing you, any potential witnesses, examining relevant documents and conducting any necessary legal research. If we believe there is a good chance for success, we also must be sure that a lawsuit, even if successful, provides enough compensation to satisfy both you and our firm.
To ascertain the potential recovery in your case, we first look at economic damages. Economic damages are the loss in compensation that you have incurred to date as a result of your termination and what loss of compensation you are likely to suffer in the future.
Loss of compensation to date is easy to compute. You simply determine what you would have earned to date had you remained employed and subtract anything that you have made in the interim.
Future lost compensation is more difficult to compute, particularly if you are unemployed at the time that you consult our office. If you have found another job since your termination, your future lost compensation will be your salary at your old employment less what you are earning presently multiplied over the number of years that there will be such a disparity. For instance, if you were earning $50,000.00 at your previous employment and now are making $40,000.00 and have five years until retirement, your future damages would be $10,000.00 x 5 years or $50,000.00.
Future lost compensation is difficult to calculate when you have not yet found a job. That is because you could find a job making more, the same, or less than you made at your last job. The best we can do in ascertaining your future lost compensation is to make projections based on the labor market and your skills.
It is my experience that unless you can demonstrate a loss of compensation (both past and future) of at least $30,000.00, I can not recover for you an amount sufficient to satisfy you or cover the costs and expenses of this firm. For instance, if you were terminated from a job that paid $7.00 per hour, you could probably find another job fairly quickly that pays $7.00 because there are many such jobs available. In that case we would probably be unable to represent you because the amount of money that we could recover for you would be insufficient to justify a lawsuit.
There are exceptions to this rule, particularly where your ex-employer acted in an outrageous fashion. This occurs generally in sex harassment or racial discrimination cases. In limited circumstances the amount you can expect to recover in these cases will make it worthwhile to proceed even in the absence of large economic damages. This is because the law provides for the recovery of non-economic damages. Non-economic damages compensate for the pain and suffering occasioned by a wrongful termination. However, my experience has shown that these types of non-economic damages are recoverable only when there is significant economic damages. In any event we are careful to ascertain the potential for both economic and non-economic damages in every case.
In the event that we are unwilling to represent you, either because we do not believe that we will be successful or because the damages are insufficient to justify a lawsuit, we will tell you so and suggest appropriate alternatives such as filing a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and/or the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, or filing a small claims action.
II.NON-DISCHARGE CASES
Generally, I will not take non-discharge cases such as failure to hire, failure to promote or demotion cases. This is because the potential recovery in these matters are generally insufficient to cover my costs and time in prosecuting the case.
Similarly, I generally will not take cases where the client has resigned because a resignation bars a lawsuit in most instances. The one exception is where the employer has made the workplace so miserable that a reasonable employee would feel compelled to resign.
Of course there are exceptions to these general rules. Where there is workplace harassment based on race, sex, age, medical condition or other prohibited factors, I am more likely to take a non-discharge case. However, for financial reasons, I must decline the majority of even these cases.
I refer most meritorious non-discharge cases to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and/or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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notice to all potential clients
with possible discrimination claims
There are a number of reasons that it may be preferable for you to file your lawsuit in federal court, rather than Michigan state court, and it is important for you to take the necessary steps to preserve your right to do so. If your potential case involves some type of discrimination (based on age, race, national origin, gender, disability, religion) or retaliation for having complained about discrimination, you must file a charge of discrimination or retaliation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 300 days of the discriminatory or retaliatory treatment. In a termination case, the date when you first learned about your termination is the date you should use for counting the 300 days. Failure to meet this 300-day time limit will mean that you will be barred from bringing your discrimination case in federal court. The telephone number for the EEOC’s Detroit office is (313) 226-7636.
Once the EEOC has finished its investigation of your case, it will likely issue you a Notice of Right-to-Sue, with a 90 day time limit for getting your case filed in federal court.
Filing a charge with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights will also preserve your right to file a discrimination suit in federal court, but the MDCR will only handle claims involving acts of discrimination or retaliation which have occurred within the last 180 days.
It is also possible that you have agreed to a shorter statute of limitations by signing a statement to that effect. Such statements sometimes appear on an employment application, and you may not be aware that you have signed one. You should carefully review your personnel file for any agreements limiting your ability to file a lawsuit in court, and advise us of any such agreements. If you have not yet obtained your file, you need to make a written request to the company pursuant to Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right-to-Know Act. (Please ask us for a copy of the pamphlet describing your rights under this act).