What Are Some Common Mistakes Employees Make Before They Ever Call an Attorney?
North Carolina employment attorney, Kathryn Abernethy, discusses a key part of an lawsuit. What do you do before you call an attorney? There are definitely things you shouldn’t do, and Katie explains those here. This is a continued issue in our employment law video series with attorney Abernethy. For all of those videos, click here. Check her video out below, and you can also read the transcription below.
Transcription: What Are Some Common Mistakes Employees Before They Ever Call an Attorney?
Making an oral report would be the biggest one because if you don’t write it down or you don’t record it, the most common defense you’re going to get is you never did it. So don’t just make an oral report if you’re going to bet your job on it, which oftentimes you are if you’re blowing the whistle.
So put it in writing. Make sure that it’s addressed to the appropriate person within the company. There are court cases that say it’s not enough just to raise in an offhand conversation with one’s boss that one saw something that that was illegal.
You have to make a report to the correct place or the correct entity within your company. That can be it. Look in your employee handbook to find out what that is.
It can be things like the ethics and compliance office. A lot of companies have an ethics hotline. It can be HR in some. In some companies, it’s the general counsel’s office. S
Make sure that you’re putting your, your report in writing, that you were reporting it to the right place. I would also note that particularly there are a couple of federal statutes that require you not just to make an internal report, but to make the report to the appropriate state or federal authorities.
For example, you know, you might in some instances have to call the SEC or call the North Carolina State Attorney General’s office.
There are some statutes that have that requirement. You want to know that before you make the complaint.
