Best strategy to negotiate severance with a company after unlawful termination?

[adjusterjack]

Are you willing and able to sue. Do you have $10,000 to $20,000 to litigate?

Here's a landlord who has already incurred $10,000 in lawyer fees in a lawsuit against a tenant. He ended up settling. Had he gone to trial he would likely have incurred another $10,000 in lawyer fees.

My lawyer has sued me for breach of contract | Forum.FreeAdvice.com

Do you have that kind of money if your former employer puts the brakes on and says final offer, take it or leave it?

 

[Redemptionman]

Based on what? We know nothing about the case, nothing about the employer, nothing about what provable damages there are. Throwing out numbers in a vacuum of information is pretty much worthless; no better than blindly throwing darts at a board with numbers on it.

LOL, it is her arbitration. No one ever takes the first offer. If they want to negotiate and have it over with then I bet they will negotiate. It has to do with deal striking, the points of the case not the strength of the case. The person got the offer they received they are at a higher threshold. I would bet that they have a 50k threshold. So logic would assume that they would meet in the middle.

but I have been wrong before, If this person has negotiated the deal they got without an attorney then they would have to get 60k+ to make up the difference. Looks like they are doing okay to me.

 

[zddoodah]

Any feedbacks or comments?

My comments are unchanged (particularly since you didn't answer the one question I asked).

 

[Tax Counsel]

Do you have that kind of money if your former employer puts the brakes on and says final offer, take it or leave it?

Jack, the difference here is that employment discrimination cases are tort claims that most attorneys will do on a contingent fee basis. The client would not generally have to front the legal fees, and wouldn't pay any legal fees if the case is lost.

However, it is worth taking into account the fact that in the end the lawyer is going to get a cut of any award (generally between 33% and 40%) in determining what settlement to take. The lawyer would have to get enough more over what you negotiate yourself to make the fee you end up paying worthwhile.

 

[Tina J.]

Based on what? We know nothing about the case, nothing about the employer, nothing about what provable damages there are. Throwing out numbers in a vacuum of information is pretty much worthless; no better than blindly throwing darts at a board with numbers on it.

If we cut right on 50K, it would be great. Here is details about my case. It's a big internet company..not sure if allowed to share the name:

Mr. X was terminated from his employment without prior notice for false pretextual reasons by his supervisor Mr. A (American) and Mr. B (American). Mr. X was subjected to racial hostility, mobbing, and privacy violation by his manager because of his excellent progress and achievements. The manager isolated Mr. X, interrupted his deliveries, used aggressive language towards him, blocked him from company-wide programs, canceled his initiated projects, manipulated his data, violated Mr. X's privacy, deceived him, and discriminated against him over to the colleagues. Mr. X was threatened and bullied, his intellectual properties and self-initiated projects were overtaken in favor of his colleagues, and Mr. X's company benefits, bonuses, program participation, and his hardware access was further restricted. The manager continuously sabotaged his working components, made attacks on his production codes, and performed mobbing against him, among others.


When Mr. X complained of and opposed discriminatory treatment through Human Resources, Mr. X simply asked to change his group but was banned from doing so. They teamed up together and finally fired Mr. X suddenly in retaliation. Mr. X was given a fake performance rating despite his excellent achievements and deprived of his annual bonus, group changes, patent bonuses, and other programs provided to other similarly situated employees of different race and national origin.

 

[Redemptionman]

If we cut right on 50K, it would be great. Here is details about my case. It's a big internet company..not sure if allowed to share the name:

Mr. X was terminated from his employment without prior notice for false pretextual reasons by his supervisor Mr. A (American) and Mr. B (American). Mr. X was subjected to racial hostility, mobbing, and privacy violation by his manager because of his excellent progress and achievements. The manager isolated Mr. X, interrupted his deliveries, used aggressive language towards him, blocked him from company-wide programs, canceled his initiated projects, manipulated his data, violated Mr. X's privacy, deceived him, and discriminated against him over to the colleagues. Mr. X was threatened and bullied, his intellectual properties and self-initiated projects were overtaken in favor of his colleagues, and Mr. X's company benefits, bonuses, program participation, and his hardware access was further restricted. The manager continuously sabotaged his working components, made attacks on his production codes, and performed mobbing against him, among others.


When Mr. X complained of and opposed discriminatory treatment through Human Resources, Mr. X simply asked to change his group but was banned from doing so. They teamed up together and finally fired Mr. X suddenly in retaliation. Mr. X was given a fake performance rating despite his excellent achievements and deprived of his annual bonus, group changes, patent bonuses, and other programs provided to other similarly situated employees of different race and national origin.

So you are saying Mr. X wasn't a team player

 

[Tina J.]

So you are saying Mr. X wasn't a team player

How did you come up with this piece, and that against Mr. X?! He was a great team player, but to isolate him, they mobbed and ganged against him from higher level orders.
Btw, you guys think better we continue counter-offering to reach the middle or just propose cut in the middle?

P.S. I have only 5 messages a day as a new member.

 

[Redemptionman]

How did you come up with this piece, and that against Mr. X?! He was a great team player, but to isolate him, they mobbed and ganged against him from higher level orders.
Btw, you guys think better we continue counter-offering to reach the middle or just propose cut in the middle?

P.S. I have only 5 messages a day as a new member.

Evidentially, his bosses didn't think he was a team player, yes negotiate away until they say this is it. Take it or Leave it.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Mr. X was subjected to racial hostility, mobbing, and privacy violation by his manager because of his excellent progress and achievements.

Ok, and what evidence does Mr. X have that all this treatment was due to Mr. X's race and not some other reason? That matters a great deal because in a lawsuit claiming illegal discrimination Mr. X has to prove his termination and the other adverse treatment he received was due to a protected characteristic.

Under federal law that would mean he was treated less favorably than other employees because of his race, color, national origin, citizenship, religion, sex, age (if he's at least age 40), disability, or genetic test information.

Under Illinois law, that means he was treated less favorably than other employee because of his race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age (40 and over), marital status, unfavorable military discharge, military status, genetic information, arrest record, victims of domestic violence, physical, mental or perceived handicap/disability, or sexual orientation (including gender-related identity).

The only one of those categories you mentioned is Mr. X's race. If Mr. X sues the employer he will bear the burden to prove that all the unfavorable things that Mr. A and Mr. B did were due to his race and not some other reason. If the company can convince a jury that the reason was something else, it will win. It's hard to win a racial discrimination lawsuit against an employer unless you have either (1) some "smoking gun" evidence from the employer that clearly shows racial animus or admitting to taking racially biased actions or (2) a pattern of discrimination by the employer against a number of employees of Mr. X's race. Action taken against just one guy without smoking gun type evidence is too easy for an employer to offer up some other alternative explanation that a jury might buy.

So, how does Mr. X know that race was the reason for all this? What evidence has he got to support it?

 

[Tina J.]

There are some evidences, but harder to prove.
Anyways, do you think I should propose cutting in the middle (say 50k), or they propose it? I feel if I do it it might be a sign of desperation.
If not, I am thinking to propose 56k. Any suggestions?