The Woodlands Lawyer

Employers need to walk a fine line when dealing with employment law. They need to make sure they’re consulting an employment law attorney when needed, but not spending their time with their lawyer instead of running their business.

To help walk this line, employers should keep themselves informed of changes in employment law. Join trade organizations, human resource organizations and take continuing education classes to keep up on the ever-changing field of employment law. The more you know, the more you’ll understand when you need to consult an attorney.

Here are some pointers of when to consult an attorney:

1) If you have a nagging voice in the back of your head that the situation will turn ugly, schedule a consultation. Even if you don’t need legal services, the peace of mind will help you focus on your work.

2) If you’re entering or drafting a contract you should have an attorney review it.

3) If you’re creating new policies, drafting new handbooks or doing something that will affect the entire company, you should consult an attorney.

4) If you’re conducting a touchy employee termination, you should consider consulting an attorney. If you consult a lawyer every time you need to terminate an employee, then you’ll spend way too much money on lawyer fees; however, if an employee is part of a protective class, is prone to violence, has intimate knowledge of proprietary information, is making claims of discrimination, close to retirement, has filed an official complaint against the company or has hired a lawyer to fight the company; then, you need to consult an employment attorney.

5) If you make substantial changes to employee benefits such as the creation or elimination of pension plan, medical plans, etc, then you need to consult an attorney to discuss any legal ramifications of the proposed changes.

Employment law is vast and changes rapidly. When in doubt, schedule a consultation with an employment lawyer.