HOW TO TALK TO AN EMPLOYMENT LAWYER FOR THE FIRST TIME

Imagine getting a live person to discuss your potential legal case against an employer. When you call the Employment Lawyers Group to inquire about a case you will either initially speak to a legal assistant, or directly to an experienced employment attorney. Keep in mind, the firm is a litigation only firm. That means they file lawsuits in court, work towards trial, and settle the case if sufficient money is offered.

When you call us for to find out if we will take your case, a legal assistant might answer and ask basic questions about the potential basis for your case. Please be concise and provide only the information requested. Legal assistants are not attorneys and do not need detailed information about your situation. Their role is to gather enough information for one of our attorneys to evaluate the matter and determine how we may assist you. Because legal assistants are not attorneys, they cannot provide legal advice, recommendations, or commentary regarding your case. Please do not ask them whether your case is legally valid or likely to succeed, as those questions require legal advice that only a licensed attorney may provide. The legal assistant will then transmit the information to an experienced employee only lawyer. If an attorney is not immediately available, one will call back via telephone if the facts of the case are something they feel they can handle in court.

Communicating with the 3 C’s: Clear, Calm, Courteous

Contacting our office via telephone is strongly encouraged. E-Mail communications are often inefficient and slow down the case review process. Phone calls allow for immediate response times and detailed conversations regarding complex situations and legal subject matter. Feel free to contact our office at (951) 367-1000between 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays to speak with an actual person to see if your situation is a case that was be filed in court. After hours, please leave us a voicemail including your name, phone number, and a brief description of the workplace-related incidents that occurred and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

When you are speaking to a legal assistant, please remember to communicate using the 3 C’s: be clear, calm, and courteous. We understand that if you call our office, you have most likely received unfair or upsetting treatment from your place of work. This type of stress and frustration may make it harder to communicate your situation, and talking about your experiences might bring intense emotions. But please remember that our staff are trying their best to help you. Being rude or raising your voice at our staff members is not tolerated.

WHEN REACHING OUT TO AN EMPLOYEE ATTORNEY FORGET THE LEGAL BUZZ WORDS

Please refrain from using “legal buzzwords,” unless you are sure they apply to your situation. Words like “discrimination,” “harassment,” and “retaliation” have specific legal meaning. Retaliation generally means somebody was fired. Harassment usually refers to sexual harassment, or racial harassment, but could also refer to pregnancy harassment or harassment due to a protected characteristic. They also require that there be facts supporting those conclusions. Bare assertions of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation are unhelpful. Legal terminology can be confusing and complicated, and we are here to help. However, using inaccurate wording can be confusing and counterproductive for our legal team and assistants, and might not allow us to properly understand your situation.

Our legal assistants are trained to ask specific and necessary questions to gather relevant information regarding your workplace issues. Instead of labeling your workplace problem with a vague “buzzword,” you can provide a brief description of the facts or events that occurred based on the questions our legal assistant will provide.

YOUR USE OF AI TURNS OFF AND DISCOURAGES A LAWYER FROM WANTING TO REPRESENT YOU

AI tools are not helpful in trying to explain your case to a lawyer. Lawyers can tell when client communications are AI generated. It will not make you sound more intelligent. Quite frankly, lawyers do not have time to debunk AI misinformation to clients, or try to explain to clients what it is the AI machine generated, on a legal level.

AI tools are more widely accessible and utilized now than ever. We know it might seem convenient or helpful to use AI to gather legal information or advice about your workplace incident. However, inputting your personal information into these models poses an immense privacy risk, as it can memorize and reproduce the data you transmit for various loosely regulated purposes. Our office is here to assist you so that you don’t have to resort to AI. Please be extremely conscientious when using Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to examine or evaluate your personal data.

AI also frequently makes mistakes. It may omit important details, fabricate people, events, or facts, or provide answers that are simply incorrect. You should never rely on AI-generated legal information or interpretations, and please do not use erroneous AI-generated material to challenge our attorneys’ advice. Doing so only creates unnecessary confusion and may undermine trust between the attorney and client.

Call (951) 367-1000 for a live person