Uncategorized Archives - Decatur Legal

Welcome to Decatur Legal

James Radford here.

In 2014, I co-founded Radford & Keebaugh, LLC, a law firm focused on civil rights and employment litigation. We adopted DecaturLegal.com as our website, emphasizing the community where our practice was located. In 2023, we wound down that firm, and I co-founded Radford Scott LLP, where we have assembled a team of experienced employment attorneys, focused on employment discrimination, wage and hour law, employment contract review and negotiation, and employment-related legal counsel for small businesses.

Today, DecaturLegal.com serves to preserve the various writings, news, announcements, and analysis from the R&K days, as well as serving as a resource for the Decatur and Georgia legal communities as a whole. I host a list of trusted legal referrals here, and showcase some of my own writing.

Negotiating a severance agreement: know your rights and form a strategy

With layoffs dominating the news (and likely your LinkedIn feed), severance is top of mind for many employees right now, even if they have yet to face a sudden cut. Even employees who are terminated for performance may be asked to sign a severance agreement that contains a general release of claims.

While severance pay isn’t a given—the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn’t require companies to provide it—many businesses choose to do so. It’s a way to soften departures for valued employees, manage the company’s reputation and head off potential employment lawsuits. In exchange for some clearly defined benefits, including pay, insurance coverage or even strong references, companies ask employees to release them from future litigation, sometimes also throwing in non-compete or non-disclosure agreements.

Because both the departing employee and the company stand to gain from the agreement, there is the potential for negotiation. Unfortunately, employees don’t always realize this. In an effort to quickly secure what they can, many leave money or other benefits on the table, limit their future prospects with onerous non-competes or cut off the possibility of a valid employment lawsuit.

So, what are your rights when it comes to severance negotiations, and how can you move on with your career in the most positive way?

Don’t feel pressured to sign immediately

It’s easy to feel blindsided by a separation. But while your computer may suddenly be disabled and your badge frozen, that rushed feeling of finality shouldn’t extend to your severance negotiations. It’s always a good idea to take some time to process the news, move past the immediate shock and really examine the package your company presents.

If you are over 40 years old, the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act ensures that you have 21 days to consider a severance agreement, then 7 days to change your mind after signing. If you are part of a reduction in force (mass layoff), you have 45 days to consider. Consequently, many companies use at least the 21-day waiting period as a standard for all departing employees.

While you may wish to confirm the timeline with HR during your termination meeting, don’t feel obligated to sign anything on the way out. You should always have time to call an employment lawyer and schedule a severance agreement review.

Consider the terms of your dismissal

While some layoffs may leave you in the company of thousands of your coworkers, others feel more personal. Look back on your employment and your dismissal. Do you feel you may have been the victim of discrimination, because you are a racial minority with your employer? Do you feel your sex was a factor because of sexist comments made by members of management? Did you request a medical accommodation, or medical leave shortly before being fired? Did you speak up against discrimination, and now you feel you are suffering retaliation?

If so, you have legal rights to have these concerns investigated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the right to bring a lawsuit if you have evidence to support your claim. Before waiving these valuable rights, you need to ensure the severance offered is adequate consideration.

During a severance package review with an employment attorney, you can discuss your dismissal and talk through your options. Pursuing litigation is never easy, but sometimes it’s the right choice. Signing your severance package closes that door definitively.

Negotiate your pay, but also look beyond it

Some companies adopt a standard severance package offering about two weeks of pay for every year you’ve worked—more if you’re a manager or executive. Pay is a straightforward place to negotiate.

Aside from pay, however, you’ll want to examine the following:

Accrued vacation time: If your PTO balance is in the positive, you could request this is paid out separately from your negotiated severance pay. In Georgia, your employer is not legally obligated to pay your unused PTO balance, but it can be a good negotiating point.
Health benefits: Many companies are required to offer COBRA benefits, allowing you to stay on the company insurance plan for up to 18 months. Because you have to carry the employer’s cost plus your own premiums, this can quickly eat up your budget. Talk to your employer about covering their share of the costs until you find a new job—especially if you have known healthcare needs.
Stock options and retirement plans: Company policies differ a lot here. Ask for policy documents in your meeting, then review them with a Georgia employment lawyer before you sign.
Perks: If you enjoyed airline elite status, a subsidized gym membership or the use of a company car, check to see if your employer includes them in your package. Like pay, it doesn’t hurt to ask your employer to extend perks until you find your next position.
Outplacement services: Businesses sometimes offer career counseling or coaching to help smooth employee transitions. If you were in a high-growth stage of your career or you’re ready to try something new, check to see if these are included.

Be careful with non-compete agreements

Pay, insurance and extended perks can all help ease your transition into a new role. But if your package includes a non-compete agreement that limits your ability to work in your field, you’ll struggle in the long run. Have your employment attorney review any confidentiality clause, non-disparagement clause, cooperation clause or non-solicitation clause, especially if you plan to stay in a similar field, local market, or start your own business.

Ask for what you need

While a layoff might leave you feeling retrospective—looking back on your job and what you brought to the company—it’s also a great time to consider your future and what you value most. In addition to speaking with an employment lawyer, you may wish to schedule a career counseling session to get a sense of your prospects and the timeline for landing a new job, furthering your education or switching careers.

Once you have at least a rough sense of where you’re going, ask your former employer for what you need most. If you’re expecting a baby, maybe that’s a lump payment and extended healthcare coverage. If you expect to secure a new job soon, you might want continued perks and an adjusted departure date. If you’re switching careers, coaching and distributed payments that lessen your tax burden might make more sense.

Manage your reputation

Today, many employees are more open about job loss, understanding the power of networks and the cyclical nature of hiring and firing. But that doesn’t mean you can’t finesse your exit as a part of your severance negotiations. If you’re at the executive or management level, consider the planned communications about your departure. Will you be able to review or offer quotes? Will your company presence, especially your bio, stay live online while you look for a new job? Will you be able to expect a reference?

As you move on to your next role, keep tabs on your own achievements. It’s helpful to have a record of what you’ve accomplished if you ever find yourself in severance negotiations or considering an employment lawsuit. Downsizing can happen at any time, and it’s a good idea to stay ready—no matter how much you enjoy your work or feel confident in your company’s stability.

Schedule your severance agreement review with Radford & Keebaugh

If you’ve been laid off, give us a call to set up a severance agreement review. We’ll let you know what’s expected in a fair severance package, and we’ll help you identify where to negotiate. Contact us today to set up your severance review.

How to Protect Yourself from Unlawful Workplace Harassment

Speak up to protect yourself from unlawful workplace harassment

Workplace harassment can quickly drain the joy out of any job. While there’s a growing shift toward speaking up about abusive comments and conduct—the #MeToo movement marked a major change—plenty of people still feel pressured to stay silent.

Employees at every level—from hourly workers to those in senior management—, can feel silenced. Low wage earners and those who face power imbalances like immigration status may fear they’ll lose much-needed work or endanger their family’s safety if they report harassment. Those in management or executive roles may worry they’ll derail a career they have built over many years, burn bridges in their industry, or gain an unfair reputation for being difficult.

No one deserves to endure workplace harassment. It should never be a condition for continued employment or career advancement.

If you feel like you’re being harassed at work, early intervention, clear self-advocacy and documentation are your best strategies for ending the negative behavior and protecting your legal rights so you can move forward in your career. If the harassment doesn’t stop, or if your company retaliates against you, those strategies will also form the foundation for your legal complaint.

What is workplace harassment?

Legally, harassment occurs when a supervisor, coworker, vendor, client or customer makes an employee or group of employees feel threatened or abused, and that behavior centers on one or more protected characteristic, like race, religion, color, sex (including gender identity, pregnancy and sexual orientation), national origin, age, genetic information and disability.

Unfortunately, the law does not cover harassment when it is not based on one of these characteristics—e.g. you have an “equal opportunity jerk” for a boss. Indeed, not all toxic behavior is illegal. Leaders may micromanage. Coworkers may make passive-aggressive comments. Clients may let slip an inappropriate joke.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers against unlawful harassment, as does the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), harassment becomes illegal when:

Putting up with the harassment is a requirement of employment.
The harassment is so severe or ongoing that a “reasonable person” finds it abusive or hostile.

It’s also illegal to harass anyone already involved in a discrimination suit or EEOC complaint.

What does harassment look like?

Unfortunately, workers sometimes excuse away harassment because it doesn’t register as something clearly wrong or illegal, like a physical assault.

Harassment may take many forms, however, including:

Offensive jokes based on race, sex, national origin, or disability
Slurs and epithets
Intimidation
Physical threats, as well as actual assaults
The display of offensive pictures, signs, or symbols
Mockery of one’s protected characteristic

Harassment can be sexual, psychological, physical, verbal or take place entirely online. And because it’s pervasive and hostile, victims can include onlookers—employees who aren’t the intended targets of the abuse.

Unlike some other forms of discrimination, harassment doesn’t need to lead to a lost opportunity in order to qualify as illegal. It doesn’t require a missed promotion or a job loss. The workplace itself is the problem.

What should you do if you believe you’re being harassed?

Employers have an obligation to protect their employees from harassment. Ideally, this is preventative work, with clear messaging around conduct, manager training and open channels for reporting issues. When a problem arises, companies that value their people, public reputation and productivity take swift action.

If you believe you’re being harassed at work, it’s sometimes productive to directly ask your harasser to stop. Not everyone will feel comfortable doing this, however, or it won’t be effective. Regardless, your next step is to put your concerns in writing and share them with HR. Aim for clarity here—be concise, polite and make note of the protected characteristics your harasser has targeted.

What actions should you expect from your employer?

Employers are liable for the behavior of employees, contractors or visitors if they know about harassment and choose not to act. They’re liable for the behavior of supervisors if the supervisors create a hostile environment or exert a negative influence on the career of the person being harassed.

Your employer should act quickly and keep you updated on progress. If HR suggests corrective opportunities, accept them or clearly voice why you feel they could expose you to further harassment. Employers can sometimes defend themselves against harassment claims if they argue the accuser didn’t work cooperatively.

Of course, if your employer responds with hostility—a demotion, for example, poor performance reviews or a dismissal—you may have a retaliation suit. While it’s sometimes challenging to prove harassment, retaliation is often quite clear. Again, it’s helpful to maintain records of your attempts to resolve the problem, as well as notes on the harasser’s actions and your own performance reviews.

A Georgia employment lawyer can help determine if you have a possible claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity. No one should feel unsafe or abused at work. While career mobility and advancement are undeniably important, so is advocating for a safe and healthy work environment.

Contact a Decatur employment lawyer today

At Radford & Keebaugh, we’re open and up front with our clients. We’ll take a look at your situation and give you our honest opinion. Our goal is to help you end harassment and move forward in your career. Contact us to talk over your situation.

R&K’s Dan Werner joins renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump in racial discrimination lawsuit against SCAD

Radford & Keebaugh’s Dan Werner has been joined by renowned civil rights litigator Ben Crump in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the Savannah College of Arts & Design (SCAD) on behalf of an African-American fishing coach who was terminated after bringing issues of racial discrimination to his administration’s attention. The full press release is below. A copy of the judicial complaint is here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2020

Media Contact:
press@bencrump.com

Attorneys Ben Crump and Daniel Werner Sue Prominent Arts College on Behalf of Former Coach for Racial Discrimination and Retaliation

Isaac Payne was routinely referred to as the N-word and threatened by students

Savannah, GA – Renowned civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Daniel Werner today filed
a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination and retaliation by the Savannah College of Art
and Design (SCAD) against a former head coach.

The suit alleges that Isaac Payne, a prominent African American competitive fisherman,
former head men’s and women’s fishing coach at Savannah College of Art and Design
(SCAD), a magna cum laude SCAD graduate, and United States Marine, experienced the
discriminatory acts during his tenure as head coach of the men’s and women’s fishing teams
when he was referred to as the N-word and threatened by students.

Crump is known for his representation of the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor,
Trayvon Martin, and others, and has been dubbed in the Washington Post as “Black
America’s Attorney General.” Dan Werner is a recipient of Public Justice’s 2015 Trial Lawyer
of the Year Award for his work on a case for workers who were victims of human trafficking
that resulted in a $14 million jury verdict.

While at SCAD, Mr. Payne – who coached an all-white team and was the only head coach of
any athletic team at SCAD who was not white – was repeatedly subjected to acts of racism:

● A student on the team frequently referred to Mr. Payne as a “(N-word)” and a “piece
of sh*t (N-word)”, statements other team members greeted with laughter and
agreement.

● Mr. Payne was threatened by another student on the team who flew a large
Confederate flag on his truck, bragged about carrying a firearm to protect himself
from Black people in Savannah, threatened physical violence against LGBT people in
Savannah, and wore a large holstered knife to a meeting with Mr. Payne.

● Mr. Payne was the subject of a group of students’ “burn book,” a shared book used
for writing unpleasant information about others.

When Mr. Payne and students reported the team members’ abuse, acts of racism, and
threats to SCAD administrators, rather than disciplining any of the students and protecting Mr. Payne’s physical safety and emotional well-being, SCAD fired Mr. Payne and hired a white man to replace him. SCAD punished Mr. Payne for seeking protection of his fundamental civil rights.

“I join Isaac Payne and attorney Dan Werner in the fight for justice against SCAD because
there is no room in our society to tolerate acts of blatant racism, including calling your coach
the N-word, bringing a knife to a meeting with him, and creating a ‘burn book’ with his name
in it,” said Attorney Crump. “African Americans have been facing intimidation tactics by
White supremacists who burned crosses in front of their homes and churches for more than
a century, and we cannot allow this type of racism to flourish in our educational institutions.
SCAD may not have started the fire so to speak, but it certainly fanned the flames of racism
when it fired Isaac Payne instead of punishing the students who committed the acts of
racism.”

“I am filing this lawsuit against SCAD to enforce my civil rights,” Mr. Payne said. “As a
Marine, I vowed to protect and serve my country and its people without regard to race.
Today, I fight for my dignity, my family’s honor, and the civil rights of the Black faculty, staff,
and students at SCAD. They deserve protection against the blatant and systemic racism
permeating their campus.”

Attorney Werner of the law firm Radford & Keebaugh added, “SCAD holds itself out as
condemning racism and promoting diversity. Yet SCAD sent a message to its students and
employees that Black lives do not matter when it refused to address students’ racism and
instead fired Mr. Payne. After eight years of honorably serving our nation as a Marine, after
graduating from SCAD with honors, and after three years of honorably serving students as a
head coach, Isaac Payne is honoring this nation’s civil rights legacy by raising his voice
against racism and discrimination at one of Georgia’s most well-known educational and
cultural institutions.”

SCAD routinely forces all employees to sign an agreement submitting all disputes to secret
arbitration in an attempt to sweep discrimination under the rug, Werner said. Although SCAD has attempted to silence Mr. Payne by trying to force him into secret arbitration, he is filing this lawsuit publicly in federal court to enforce his civil rights and, as part of his case, is asking the judge to find that will argue that the arbitration agreement is unenforceable. He is mindful that arbitration has been a legal tactic used by the powerful to silence Black voices, and the voices of other workers suffering discrimination. As a former employee, he refuses to be silenced.

Parks v. Stanton – Order Denying Motion to Dismiss, Motion for Summary Judgment, as to Defendant’s Counterclaims

In this litigation, plaintiff Phaedra Parks sued our client, Angela Stanton, alleging that Stanton’s memoir, Lies of a Real Housewife, was defamatory. Stanton filed counterclaims for tortious interference with contract and bad faith litigation, alleging that Parks’ lawsuit was frivolous and was designed to shut down the publication of truthful information. Parks filed motions to dismiss the counterclaims, and for summary judgment as to the counterclaims. In the orders below, the court denies Parks’ motions.

A hearing is set on Stanton’s motion for summary judgment as to Parks’ original lawsuit on April 20, 2015 in the Gwinnett County State Court.

The docket in this case can be viewed via the Gwinnett County court website here.

Parks v. Stanton – Orders Denying Motion to Dismiss, Motion for Summary Judgement, as to Defendant’s Counte… by James Radford