The Ticking Time Bombs in your Business

In the business landscape, unseen threats often pose the greatest risks. These aren’t always  market fluctuations or the competition’s tactics, but the overlooked legal vulnerabilities  within your own company. Undetected, they’re time bombs. When they detonate, the fallout  can be devastating. They can blindside even the most self-assured companies.  

Consider this: A former employee, Sam, left your company on reasonably good terms. But a  minor grievance about unpaid overtime nagged at him. What seemed like a small, resolvable  issue got in the hands of a sharp-eyed attorney, who uncovered broader, systemic oversights  in your labor practices. Suddenly, a minor complaint spiraled into a lawsuit, or even class  action, putting the company’s reputation, finances, and future at risk.  

With over a decade of labor and employment law experience, I’ve seen time and again how even  great companies who truly try to treat their employees right get crippled by attorneys eager to  cash in on their slightest mistakes.  

Consider the all-too-real case of Company X [Redacted]. Due to an unchecked box in their  payroll software, employees were consistently underpaid by a few cents each pay period.  This minor discrepancy went unnoticed for years, and eventually amounted to about $25,000  in total underpayments.  

When an employee, terminated for reasons unrelated to this issue, consulted an attorney with  intentions of addressing his firing, the attorney spotted the payroll error. Seeing the potential,  the lawyer launched a state-wide class action lawsuit on behalf of all affected employees.  

You might think, “Okay, settle the $25,000 and move on.”  

Think again.  

The labor law landscape is filled with pitfalls, especially in places like California where penalties  can be monstrous.  

That $25,000 error? It exploded to over $6 million in liability. Each minor underpayment set off  a cascade of penalties: untimely wage penalties, inaccurate wage statement penalties,  overtime penalties, waiting time penalties, PAGA penalties, and more.  

Oh, and by the way, you’re also paying for their attorneys on top of your own.  

This isn’t unfounded scaremongering; it’s reality for countless businesses that fail to realize that  an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  

Many startups and smaller businesses especially mistakenly feel safe. They assume the bond they  share with employees shields them from litigation. This couldn't be further from the truth.  Remember Sam? He didn’t want to take down the company, he just wanted to get the little  extra that he felt was owed. 

The thing is though, once he walked into that attorney’s office, all bets were off. That attorney  doesn’t know you. He doesn’t know that you really were trying to treat your employees  fairly…and frankly he doesn’t care. His livelihood depends on taking as much from you as  he can—and he will do anything in his power to do so.  

Think you’re already doing everything perfectly? You’re not. The labor and employment law  field is littered with intricate rules that carry enormous penalties. Even when companies DO know how to comply, doing so in practice is rarely ever perfect.  

Moreover, even if you are doing everything correctly, you may not be doing things optimally.  

This is where we come in. We are the ounce of prevention that wise companies decide to use.  Let us look at your labor and employment practices. From onboarding, to employment, to  termination, let us review and clean up your practices.