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Millions of dollars recovered on behalf of deserving employees!

Saenz & Anderson | Attorneys at Law Serving Aventura, FL and Miami-Dade County Home Page

NATIONAL NEWS

As reported by NBC NewsUSA TodayMSN.comThe Miami HeraldSun Sentinel and other news outlets, Saenz & Anderson, PLLC’s founding partner Martin Saenz along with co-counsel Marc Brumer obtained a massive eight-figure jury verdict on behalf of a Hilton employee — a Haitian immigrant by the name of Marie Jean-Pierre — in a religious discrimination case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

WELCOME MESSAGE

For many people, the process of filing a legal claim and pursuing a legitimate legal case can be intimidating at best. You may not know where to turn or how to proceed with your claim. You may be overwhelmed by the incidents that have caused you to seek recourse under the law. For others, just the thought of speaking with an attorney or appearing in a courtroom causes fear and stress. You may also be afraid of reprisal from your employer, supervisor or coworkers if you take action to pursue what you are entitled to.


At Saenz & Anderson, we know it is important to have a competent and empathetic attorney on your side. With over 70 years of combined legal experience, the attorneys at Saenz & Anderson are ready to handle any issue in the area of employment law. We are trial lawyers, admitted in state and federal courts in South Florida. It is our mission to protect workers from wrongful employment practices!


We handle a variety of legal issues, including:


  • Wage-and-hour disputes, such as non-payment of overtime or minimum wages
  • Wrongful termination
  • Retaliation
  • Discrimination based on age, race, gender, nationality, disability or other protected categories
  •  Harassment, including sexual harassment
  • Whistleblower retaliation
  • Workers’ Compensation retaliation
  • Employment contract disputes and litigation, including breach of contract, employment-at-will issues, severance packages, non-compete issues, confidentiality agreements


Since opening our doors in 2014, our South Florida attorneys have obtained millions in settlements and jury verdicts for our deserving clients. Most of our cases are handled on a contingency fee basis, which means that we don’t get paid if you don’t get paid. Let us help you. Call today or complete our free case evaluation.

AWARDS & ASSOCIATIONS

RECENT NEWS


wage theft victim
01 Jun, 2023
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that ensures workers are paid a fair wage for their labor. Unfortunately, wage theft has become a pervasive issue across the country, including in Florida. Wage theft can take many forms, from employers failing to pay minimum wage or overtime to forcing employees to work off the clock. These actions not only harm workers, but they also have far-reaching consequences on the overall workforce and economy. In this post, we'll explore the ripple effects of wage theft in Florida and how it's affecting jobs.New Paragraph
Yellow folder with Severance Package written in red on it
28 Jul, 2022
Employers offer severance agreements to employees for many reasons. In some cases, employees negotiate severance terms as part of their employment agreement. Some employment agreements require the employer to pay specified compensation to the employee if the employee is fired without cause. Key employees often negotiate severance agreements to assure that they will have funds available if they lose their jobs because their employer goes out of business or is sold to a company that wants to replace the company’s executives. In other cases, employers offer severance agreements to employees to induce them to resign. Employers might offer severance packages when they want to downsize, to eliminate employees with high salaries, or to resolve personality conflicts by ridding themselves of employees they view as troublesome. Severance agreements can give employees an incentive to retire or to find work elsewhere while helping employers eliminate employees without actually firing them. Finally, employers that plan to fire an employee might offer a severance agreement to reduce the risk of litigation. Avoiding litigation is a key reason that motivates employers to enter into post-employment severance agreements, whether the employee is leaving voluntarily or being fired. Benefits to Employees of Severance Agreements Severance agreements typically promise that an employee will receive extra compensation after employment ends. The compensation might consist of a lump sum payment or a continuing payment of salary for a specified length of time. Additional compensation may include a contribution to a retirement fund, continuing health insurance at the company’s expense, and other benefits for a fixed period of time. The agreement might describe a formula for computing compensation. The formula is usually tied to the length of the employee’s employment. For example, an employee might receive one week of compensation at the employee’s most recent salary for each year of employment that the employee completed. Apart from health insurance benefits, most severance compensation is taxable income. Agreements typically require the employer to withhold payroll taxes on compensation. When agreements provide that the employee will be paid on a 1099 basis, they also require the employee to indemnify the employer if the employer is held responsible for unpaid payroll taxes. A severance agreement might sound like a good deal. And in some cases, being paid without working for the payment might be a good deal. But every severance agreement comes with a price. Employees should understand that they give up valuable rights when an employer wants to give them severance pay in exchange for ending their employment. Release of Liability Employers do not offer severance pay as a gift. They invariably obtain a release of liability in exchange for the severance benefit. By signing the agreement, the employee agrees not to sue the employer for any claim that the employee could have asserted. Employers often worry that firing an employee might violate (or be perceived as violating) employment laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, gender and gender identity, disability status, religion, age, or membership in other protected classes. Employers might also worry that they will be sued for a violation of whistleblower statutes, for failing to pay earned bonuses or commissions, or for other injuries to an employee. A severance agreement that describes the separation from employment as voluntary gives the employer some protection from those claims, but the strongest protection is a release of liability. The release is generally written in the broadest possible language so that the employee releases all possible claims, including claims that the employee has not yet discovered. The law imposes some limitations on releases, but those limitations are few: Employers cannot obtain a valid release of claims for minimum wage or overtime violations because federal law prohibits including those claims in a general release. Releases of age discrimination claims by employees over the age of 40 are only valid if the agreement gives the employee 21 days to think about the agreement before signing it and 7 days to revoke the agreement after signing it. To be valid, the release must notify the employee of his or her right to obtain legal advice before signing the agreement. Depending on state law, a general release might be insufficient to resolve a workers’ compensation claim that is not specifically referenced in the agreement or approved by a workers’ compensation judge. Releases generally apply only to claims based on acts that have already occurred. They do not apply to harms that an employer causes after the agreement is signed. Some releases might also be invalid because they were obtained by coercion or duress, or because they are so unfair as to be unconscionable. Since it is rare for a court to set aside a release on those grounds, employees should seek legal advice before signing the agreement. Signing it and hoping to challenge it later is not a smart strategy. Confidentiality and Non-Disparagement Agreements Severance agreements almost always include a confidentiality clause. As a condition of receiving severance pay, the employee cannot tell anyone how much severance pay he or she received. In most cases, employees cannot even tell anyone (other than their lawyers and tax advisers) that the agreement exists. Most confidentiality agreements also prohibit employees from disclosing certain information they learned during their employment, including trade secrets and other information that the employer defines as confidential. Price lists, customer lists, suppliers, the company’s financial condition, and similar information is usually defined as confidential. Non-disparagement agreements prevent the employee from making negative remarks about the employer. If an employee complains to other employees that he or she was treated unfairly by the employer, the employer may be entitled to take back the severance pay and to pursue damages. Typical violations of non-disparagement clauses occur when an employee speaks to the media or posts statements on social media that criticize the former employer. Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation Agreements Many states, including Florida, permit employers and employees to enter into non-compete agreements. The agreement provides that the employee will not accept employment with a competing business for a specified length of time within a specified trade or geographic area. When an employer wants to subject an employee to a non-compete agreement, it usually does so when employment begins or when the employee has been promoted to a position that might give the employee experience that would benefit a competitor. The non-compete clause in a severance agreement is often a restatement of an agreement that the employee already made. Employees should nevertheless take care to understand whether the noncompete clause imposes new or broader restrictions than the agreement that the employee previously made. Non-compete agreements are usually combined with non-solicitation agreements. Those agreements restrict the former employee’s ability to solicit the company’s customers or to ask its current employees to join the former employee in a new or different business. Employer’s Remedies Most agreements require employees to repay the severance benefit if they breach the agreement. Employees might also be required to pay the employer’s attorneys’ fees if they are found liable for a breach. An employee might therefore be at risk of returning severance pay and of paying a large attorneys’ fee if the employee violates the terms of the agreement. Some severance agreements specify the place where any lawsuit concerning a breach of the agreement must be heard. They might also specify the state law that should govern the lawsuit. For example, if a New York corporation enters into a severance agreement with an employee of its Florida office, the agreement might specify that any lawsuit relating to the agreement must be filed in New York and will be governed by New York law. Employers often designate an inconvenient forum to create a disadvantage for former employees. The Importance of Legal Advice In many cases, a severance agreement will benefit an employee. Having extra money at the end of employment can be useful as the employee searches for a new job. In other cases, the amount of money the employee receives does not justify the loss of rights that the agreement demands. Employees who are presented with a severance agreement should seek immediate legal advice. Employees who are over the age of 40 must be given time to consult with a lawyer if the agreement includes a general release. When a younger employee is told “sign it now or we’ll fire you without paying severance,” the employee might suspect that the employer has done something unlawful and desperately wants to obtain a release of liability. That situation is uncommon, but when it occurs, the employee has a difficult choice. An employee who anticipates that a termination is coming might want to talk to a lawyer about the appropriate response to a severance agreement. When an employee has the opportunity to seek legal advice, it can be beneficial to do so. Severance agreements are binding contracts. Their terms may be difficult to understand. Before an employee agrees to release potential claims against an employer, the employee should know what he or she is giving up. Employers too often take advantage of employees who do not understand what they are losing by signing the agreement. A lawyer will ask questions to determine whether claims against the employer might exist, whether they have merit, and whether the severance benefit is sufficient to make the release of those claims worthwhile. A lawyer who identifies potential claims may be able to negotiate a better payment in exchange for the release of those claims. Without obtaining legal advice, employees may never realize that it would be better for them to pursue a wrongful discharge lawsuit or other claims against the employer, or to negotiate a larger severance payment.
exchanging-money-in-front-of-law-books
12 Jul, 2022
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay minimum wage to nearly all employees and overtime to nonexempt employees. When employers fail to pay the wages required by law, employees can sue for unpaid wages. Employees might fear that hiring a lawyer to collect unpaid wages will cost more than the wages they collect. Fortunately, Congress anticipated that fear when it enacted the FLSA. Federal law requires the employer to pay the reasonable legal fees that an employee incurs to remedy a violation of the FLSA. Some cases of unpaid wages do not involve minimum wage or overtime. They involve withheld paychecks or the failure to pay promised compensation, such as a commission or bonus. In those cases, a Florida statute also shifts the burden to the employer to pay fees to an employee who prevails in a legal action to collect those wages. FLSA Wage Requirements Florida employers violate the FLSA minimum wage requirement in a variety of ways. Examples include: Requiring employees to keep working after they clock out. Requiring employees to perform different work, such as cleaning the premises, after they clock out. Requiring employees to work through lunch without paying them for the lunch period. Taking a “tip credit” from the wages of employees who are not tipped. Taking a “tip credit” from the wages of tipped employees for work that is separate from their tipped work. Improperly classifying an employee as an independent contractor. The FLSA requires employers to pay “time-and-a-half” for hours above 40 that a nonexempt employee works in a workweek. Nearly all employees who are paid by the hour are nonexempt employees. Salaried employees are nonexempt unless they meet strict criteria that determine whether an exemption applies. Examples of overtime violations by Florida employers include: Misclassifying nonexempt employees as exempt. Paying the regular hourly wage for all hours work without paying extra for overtime. “Shaving” overtime hours by consistently rounding down but never rounding up when computing overtime payments. Basing overtime wages on a pay rate that does not take account of all earnings. Making employees work through lunch and not counting the hours as overtime. Not paying overtime for work that employees do at home. Not paying overtime for job-related travel. Not paying overtime for time spent performing required tasks (such as donning gear) before work starts. Not paying overtime for on-call hours when the employee is not free to pursue his or her own activities. Employers are liable for back wages when they violate minimum wage and overtime laws. They are usually liable for a penalty that equals back wages. Attorney’s Fees for Wage Violations Some wage violations are sizeable, particularly when a wage theft victim brings a claim on behalf of co-workers who were cheated in the same way. In some cases, however, back wages reflect a violation that only lasted for a few weeks before the cheated employee quit or was discharged. Some employees worry that the expense of hiring an attorney will exceed the award of back wages. The FLSA requires employers to pay the reasonable attorney’s fee incurred by an employee who prevails in a claim for back wages caused by FLSA violations. In almost all cases, the court has no choice but to award fees to an employee who brings a successful FLSA lawsuit against an employer. In Florida, a state law allows employees to recover attorney’s fees when they make a successful claim for unpaid wages. Florida employment attorneys usually rely on state law when an unpaid wage claim is not based on the FLSA. While state law gives judges more discretion to award fees than federal law, most state judges are willing to award reasonable fees to employees who prevail in lawsuit for unpaid compensation. Since attorneys know that the employer will probably be required to pay a client’s reasonable legal fee if the client prevails in court, employment lawyers usually take cases for unpaid wages on a contingent basis. That means they don’t earn a fee unless they obtain a recovery. The terms of a contingent fee agreement may depend on the nature of the case. The fee might be a percentage of the recovery, it might be the amount paid by the employer, or it might be some combination of the two, depending on whether a fee is awarded by the court or a settlement is reached before or after filing lawsuit. In any event, the employee will not need to worry about paying the attorney more than the attorney recovers. An employment lawyer will explain the fee structure in detail before a wage theft victim decides whether to retain the attorney. Employees who believe they were cheated out of wages should not be afraid to call an employment lawyer for advice.
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