The Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business, 3rd Edition

Chapter 33

Legal-Ease II

I can try a lawsuit as well as other men, but the most important thing is to prevent lawsuits.

—Confucius

If you have ever been party to a lawsuit, you know only too well how true Confucius's words are. Lawsuits are a civilized form of war, pitting one side in a pitched battle against the other, both willing to do and spend almost anything to win, and both usually losing plenty in the process. Lawsuits are an expensive, time-consuming, exhausting, frustrating, and often ineffective way to resolve disputes. The point of the last chapter and this one is to help you avoid the dreaded lawsuit. The best way to do that is to know what the rules are and to do your best to follow those rules.

Employment Discrimination

Employment discrimination lawsuits usually arise when employees are fired or denied employment and they contend that discrimination is the reason.

At-Will Employment

When can you fire someone without repercussions? Although seemingly a simple question, the answer is not so simple. The basic rule is this: almost all employees are considered to be employed at will. An at-will employee can be fired at any time, for almost any reason. Just cause employees cannot—you need, as the term implies, a just cause to let them go. What makes a worker a just cause employee? Usually it is some sort of employment contract or promise of continued employment. If, for example, you have an employee handbook that promises job security, that could be construed by a court ...