Quickstart Guide to using TimsLaw.com to learn about employment law

• Deciding what to do . . . Suing, etc
• FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions about job problems and employment law
• Been fired? – Common steps to consider taking
• Wrongful Termination – What makes a termination legally “wrongful”
• Retaliation – when it’s wrongful, “protected activity”
• Making complaints about unfair treatment – Catch-22 – Both what you say and don’t say could hurt your potential case
• Constructive Discharge – When the employer is mistreating you and may be trying to force you to quit
• Discrimination – EEOC, MCHR, filing charges, Right to Sue
• “At-will” employment – You have lots of rights even though you may be “at-will”
• Service Letter: It’s a good tool. What it is and how to get one
• Contracts – Oral and written agreements, severance, physicians, non-competes

• Check out the Links Page. I have gathered Links to many extensive sources of info, some from private sources and some from government sources. You can learn a lot about your potential rights if you spend some time following those links. You can also dig deeply into the details of the employment laws, especially at the government websites.

How to use the info you obtain

• Raise your awareness about how employment law works, and learn something about what to expect from the legal system if you attempt to exercise your legal rights or you contact lawyers.

• Avoid some of the traps in employment law.

• Prepare for your initial contact with a lawyer of your choosing. You will probably (or at least you probably should) be contacting a lawyer soon to look into helping you. Because of what you have read, you will probably be better-able to communicate with a lawyer in a consultation. You can get more to the point quicker. You should be more likely to say the right things to get the lawyer’s attention. This might make it easier for you to find a lawyer. At least you’ll be able to understand why the lawyer is asking you all those questions.

• Introduce yourself to an area of law that you can explore further through the Links I have provided. I have provided some Links to major government labor agencies, and those agencies have developed websites that give a great deal of detailed information about the employment-related laws. Other Links take you to places on the web where you can fairly easily read the laws for yourself. I even have a Link to a place where you can do limited free case law research.

• But don’t expect to learn all of the nitty gritty details of the laws on my website. My website differs quite a bit from the government websites I link to, even when I write about a particular labor law that is covered by the government on the government’s website. On my website you will be exposed to some real-world tips and traps regarding how the legal system might handle a case arising under the laws, but you will not learn all of the nitty gritty details about the laws themselves.

  On the government websites, you will be able to learn the nitty gritty details of the laws, but you will often not get very much practical information about what to expect if you prosecute the case. So if you are really interested in a particular job-related law, read my article about that law (if I’ve written one yet) and then go to the appropriate Federal or Missouri government website (see the Links page) and read what the government says about the same law.

• If you think you need legal advice, you probably do. Better safe than sorry. See a lawyer.

Article written by | Tim Willoughby