eSignature Lawfulness for Letter of Appreciation to Employee in UAE

How to eSign a document: eSignature lawfulness for Letter of Appreciation to Employee in UAE

(upbeat techno music) - Hi everyone, it's Amber, Amber Boyd Attorney at Law. Giving you, Your Legal Lunch Break. Now you all, this channel is dedicated to making sure you know and understand your employment law rights. And also, you know what to do when those employment law rights are violated. Today, we're gonna talk about what to do when you receive your dismissal and Notice of Right letter from the EEOC. It's to tip it, what I call your Right to Sue letter. So what we're gonna do is, we're gonna talk about the first steps you need to take when you receive that Right to Sue letter. The documents that you need to start collecting when you receive your Right to Sue letter. And lastly how much your case can be worth. So let's hop right on in. First you all, when you receive your Right to Sue letter you need to read it. I know that seems super basic. However, you do not receive a Right to Sue letters on a day to day basis. And that Right to Sue letter is packed with information that's very pertinent to your case and it also, it can make or break your case. So you really need to read it. So what we're gonna do with, we're going to review a Right to Sue letter, a sample one and we're going to talk about each component of that Right to Sue letter. Let's look at Right to Sue letter now. When you receive your EEOC Right to Sue letter one of the things you're gonna receive is this document religion. This is the document you're going to receive and I'm just gonna go through this document. So you can get a clear understanding of how you need to read this document. Now, at first, when you receive this you're gonna see the to, right? The to just need your name and your address. And that's gonna be why it's so important for you to make sure that you include your correct email address and your correct actually mailing address to the EEOC. Also make sure that you are updating the address on a continuous basis, why? 'Cause at times these EEOC investigations can take easily 180 days, easily much more longer than that. And that means if you move that means, that all this is on you to keep your address and keep your information up to date with the EEOC. Secondly, you're gonna see the firm, the firm it's gonna be the office in which you file your EEOC charge with. Here in Indianapolis is gonna be the Indianapolis District Office it's located 101 West, Ohio street. That's gonna be address that you see on your EEOC charge. Thirdly you gonna see your EEOC charge number. Now, the EEOC charge number is gonna usually start off with the 470. Then it's going to go on to the 220, and then it's actually going to go on to come back to just random numbers. but it's the identifier of your EEOC charge. That's why it's very important to make sure that you know your charge. And once you even follow your charge, if you keep that number in your personal effects because you wanna make sure you can reference that charge either to call the EEOC office. So that's why it's very important for you to make sure that you have knowledge of that number because it's the identifier of your actual case. But of cause there's gonna to be the EEOC representative. Now the EEOC representative is gonna be someone who has been designated by the EEOC to investigate your charge. Typically, it's probably a random person, through the EEOC, who's gonna investigate your charge, you know that person's name. And then that person's names will also be on your EEOC Dismissal of Notice of Rights. Also this now with the telephone number. So the telephone number to either the investigator or even the District Office it's going to be on this document. Just in case, if you receive it you have more questions in regards to it. You can definitely call that number and get some of your questions answer. Now, the most important portion this document is gonna be in the middle of this page, why so? Right here, which says, "The EEOC is closing its file on this charge for the following reason." Right? And so I'm gonna go through all of the reasons as to why the EEOC will close your charge of discrimination. So, the first it says, "The facts alleged in the charge fail to state a claim under any of the statutes enforced by the EEOC." Right, if you've listened to any of my views before, you know the EEOC is only gonna investigate employment discrimination, based on your protected class. Right, so it means that there's not one to investigate indiscrimination based on housing or Indiscrimination that has occurred in restaurant or public building, right? Where you are a customer. This is going to be an investigation. This is going to take place in regards to your employment and it's gonna be due to your protected class, right? So it means that you're saying that your employer has discriminated against you based on Title VII, which is your race or your color your national origin, your religion, or gender or even your sexual orientation, or you've been harassed, right bi-racially harassed, or even sexually harassed or even harassed based on your disability. That's going to be some of the EEOC actually investigates. Also the EEOC is gonna investigate, any discrimination based on your disability by your employer and aimed at a discrimination based on your age by your employer. So those are kind of really the big ticket items and they're big statutes in which the EEOC is going to investigate. They're not gonna investigate anything else besides employment matters and employment matters there are discriminatory due to your protected class. So makes sure you understand that, okay? And so if this box is checked it means that you didn't say the claim or the EEOC saying that it's based on discrimination by your employer. So that's why that box is checked. And doesn't mean that you may not have a case against your employer, you know, hear me out. It doesn't mean that. It just means that it doesn't, the case that you have against your employer is not gonna go through the EEOC. And so what I would encourage to do is, you know you can do some Google research which you also will contact an attorney and say, "Look this is what has taken place that I received this EEOC Notice of Right to Sue and they're saying that I didn't say the client under Statutes enforced by the EEOC. What do I do, how can I move forward?" And maybe your employer will be able to best help you. The another check Mark is, "Your allegations did not involve a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act." Right, and I've never seen this checked at all. And it's because the Americans with Disabilities Act actually defines disability very, very broadly, right? And so it is easier to say that you didn't give EEOC information to believe that you're suffering from a disability, right? And so that's why that would be checked. The third is, "The respondent employs less the required number of employees or is not otherwise covered by the statute." It's very, very hard for employer not to be covered by the statute Title VII or the Americans with Disabilities Act or even an Age Discrimination in Employment Act. However, in order for an employer to be covered they still had to have the requisite number of employees. Right? And so under the Title VII, employer has to appoint at least 15 individuals, that's the same with Americans with Disabilities Act. The employer has to also employ at least 15 individuals. Now it's little different in regards to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the employer has to employ at least 20 individuals to be covered and for you to be able to file a complaint with the EEOC, yeah. So, if the EEOC says, "Well, you know, you've told us that the employer doesn't have 15 or 20 employees. So we can't enforce do an investigation or do any investigation or enforce any of the law because they don't have the records number of employees." What I also do is, I know I want to say this throughout this video is contact an attorney because sometimes there are other statutes that could be applicable. One in particular could be section 1981, where if you believe your employer is discriminating against you on the basis of your race, then you can still file a complaint under section 1981 and basically you're filling directly to a Federal Court. So that's still an option for you. Fourth, you're gonna say, this one say's "If your charge was not timely filed with EEOC; in other words, you waited too long after the dates of the alleged discrimination to file your charge," right? So we know in state of Indiana that you have at least 300 days to file your complaint if you are a private employee with the EEOC. So that means that if you were terminated, 301 days before you try to file your complaint with the EEOC, you are then time barred. So you can not file your complaint with the EEOC cause your barred by time. And that's one of the things that I hate to say to any of people contacting me as, "Hey, you waited too long." Because simply needs to file cases. It's just that sometimes you're afraid or sometimes you know, you're so caught up with a termination or suspension promotion, that's hard to move on. But when you received these charges or when you believe that you've been discriminated against, based on your protected class, you need to contact an attorney or contact the EEOC and get that charge filed as soon as possible. Either you believe, "Hey, it's kind of scary. I don't know if this is really discrimination or not." I will still contact an attorney or contact the EEOC directly because if you could have, if you should have filed a charge and you just waited later on, there's no way to go back and change that. So I'd rather be safe than sorry and get that charge filed as soon as possible. Lastly, and this is the one where I typically see all the time, that's checked and that's why I came to check on this redacted document. It states, "The EEOC Issues the following determination. Based on its investigation, the EEOC Is unable to conclude the information obtained, establishes violations of the statutes. This does not certify that the respondent is in compliance with the statutes. No finding is made as to any other issues that might be construed as having been raised by this charge." Y'all, I've been practicing employment law for the last probably seven, eight years. And I haven't always, every single time I always file a complaint or charged discrimination with the EEOC, that one is checked. It just don't matter if my client has a great case where the person tells them directly, "We terminating because you're a woman." That is y'all, if that is filed, that's checked, okay. And so when you get the EEOC charge and that one is checked, Is to not mean you do not have a case. Okay, It does that. I mean, I would say that again. It does not mean you do not have a case, right? Much on the contrary you probably do have a case and you might have a case, okay. What has happened is that the EEOC has probably taken your information, right? And filed that charge of discrimination the EEOC has requested a position statement from your past employer. They've received, they've read over it. And then they've issued a Right to Sue letter because they cannot make a determination if the discrimination has occurred or not. And that's because the EEOC, y'all, they get tons of calls, tons of charges that are filed, and they cannot do the in-depth investigation that a private attorney can do. It's just that they don't have the manpower to do so. And so the EEOC typically is gonna check that the EEOC if an issue, determination is saying, Look, I'm not saying you don't have a case but I'm not saying you do have a case. I'm saying that you need to figure out even need to move for probably in the federal and file a federal lawsuit. And that's gonna be determine if you have a case or not. And so do not be dismayed that's checked. What I would do is as soon as you receive your Right to Sue letter, I would then contact my employer and say, "Look, you know I receive this Right to Sue letter. This is the check. This one was checked. What do I do next?" Okay, and then go from there. But make you think. Or don't think that you don't have a case because that one's checked. That is just not true at all. I know I'm belaboring that point, but it's because of the fact that I've had, even my clients sometimes are like, "Amber, I received this other cases." All right, I'm like no, the cases are really just beginning because typically that's gonna be what the EEOC checks in these discrimination cases. And you just have to go through the next process which is filing a lawsuit in Federal Court, which I would definitely advise you to contact attorney when you do so. So the last one is, "The EEOC has adopted the findings of the state or local fair employment practices agency that investigated this charge." This is going to be checked when you file a complaint or file charge with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission if you're in Indiana. So, it's your state agency that investigates discrimination in the state of Indiana. It's the Indiana Civil Rights Commission. If you live in another state it could be something else or even if you live and you may have file a charge in Gary, I know Gary has a Gary Human Relations that probably also investigates these matters as well. And so the EEOC say, "Look, I'm going to adopt whatever they stated in regards to your case." And sometimes they say, but yeah, you do. And this information has a curl or more than likely leaves the say agency as stated that there's no charge. No discrimination has been found. Again, that does not mean you don't have a case. It just means that when they just look at your charge and your position statement, they're stating that you, they can not find indiscrimination. Which is not a very in-depth look at any of this. So don't, again, don't get dismayed regarding that because it just means that they couldn't, with their resources actually investigate in and look just to determine if you've been discriminated against, okay. And then this other, which is briefly say I've never seen them do a briefing state, anything. So that's simply not, what's gonna be checked. And so then this is the part where notice applies. So it says that, "Title VII, the Americans with Disability Act the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or the Age Discrimination Unemployment Act." So this applies to these statutes. "This will be the only notice of dismissal of your Right to Sue that we will send to you. You may file a lawsuit against the respondents under federal Law, based on this charge in Federal or State Court. Your lawsuit must be filed, right? And must be filed within 90 days of your receipt of this notice or your Right to Sue based on this charge will be lost. The time limit for filing suit based on a claim under state law may be different." Okay, I'm just gonna stop and stuck right there. Y'all this is so important. And you get nothing out of this case besides the EEOC check if the EEOC issues the power of determination. The other point push out to get out of this video is in regards to you have 90 days to file a suit, right? So when you, when it says it has 90 days to file a suit you need to look at this day right here verses, this one it says, August 28th, 2019. You have 90 days from this day to file a suit. Do not sit around, do not throw this in your pile junk mail. If you are serious about filling your lawsuit. you need to contact your attorney and discus your charge of discrimination with that attorney. You don't, contact just one, you contact multiple attorneys. So you can get understanding, if you have a case of not. but you have 90 days, right? From this date, right? From this date to file that lawsuit. If you do not follow your lawsuit, within that timeframe, you cannot pursue your case. And if you don't pursue case that means, that you are losing out on a significant amount of money, okay. We will talk about it in another video but that's why this is really important. You wanna make sure that you, adhere to these deadlines, so you can receive the recovery that you deserve. Secondly, it's go be the Equal Pay Act or we call typically is just the EPA. "The EPA suits must be filed in Federal or State Court within two years, three years for willful violations of the alleged EPA underpayment. This means that back pay due to any violation that occur more than two or three years before your sue may not be collectible." Right? So that's why it's really important when you have Equal Pay Act violation, you wanna make sure you get that filed ASAP, why? Because what's happening here is if you had two to three years to get the file. Yeah, that's true. You have the time, but the longer you wait, the less you can go back, right? As I have the EPA is a little made better Act that was actually signed to law by president Obama says, "That each patient that you received is a violation of the EPA." And so let's say that your last paycheck with your employer was a year ago, okay. So you then had, but you'd been working for your employer for about seven, eight years. You had that last paycheck was a year ago. So 2020 now, 2020 was your last paycheck from your employer. You've waited a year, right? To actually file a suit. So you file a suit because you have that two to three years. I would actually start with the two because it's very interpretation by a judge if it's willful, right? And so you have at two years, or you wait that year. You're gonna go back to the year in which you've had been paid unfairly. And then you can go back two to three years after that. It's really just two, maybe three years from the day in which you have terminated. And so that's why it's really important. If when you are being paid equally, you need to hop on that and say, "Look, I'm being paid unequally." This is year five working there. So then you are not basically losing a lot of money that you could have recovered because there's discrimination or that's why you have to tie me as everything in these cases. And that's why you wanna make sure that you actually are paying attention to that time is elapsing. Okay, and so the end is going to be the CC. You usually, the CC is going to be either is going to be the employer's address. It could be their attorney that they hired to respond to the EEOC charge Or it could just be the human resources is this their address. And then the last is gonna be my address, right? Or your attorney's address. It's gonna be on there. 'Cause we're gonna receive that EEOC, Right to Sue directly. And that's why it's really important also to me. I have an attorney. Because attorneys typically that we all move a lot, right? We just have a place. "Look, this is our office. This is where we at. This is where receive EEOC Right to Sue letters." And so it's very, very important for you to have an attorney that's gonna recover the charge, and then they'll give you a call and say, "Look, we've received this. What do you wanna do? Let's move forward. Let's get this case filling in Federal Court." All right. After you received your Right to Sue letter. You review your Right to Sue letter. You now need to contact an attorney. I know, I know that's probably not something that you wanted to hear but you need an attorney when you're dealing with this case. Because first you wanna talk to an attorney an Employment Law Attorney to determine if you actually have a viable claim. An Employment Law Attorney who deals with these cases on a day-to-day basis is going to be able to sit with you, talk to you, listen to the facts of your case and determine if you have a winnable claim. Once that attorney talks to you and determines you have a winnable claim, then you need to pursue a Federal Lawsuit. And that's not something you can do by yourself that's why you have to contact an attorney. Federal Court is very different from Small Claims Court and it's actually very different from the Indiana State Court or State Court in general. Federal Court, to put it like this, intimidating. I'm even intimidated when I attend Federal Court myself. And it's for several reasons, one you don't have just one judge in Federal Court, you have two judges in Federal Court. Also, when you file a case in Federal Court, there's gonna be a host of things that you have to make sure you do and you have to do those things timely. One is you have to make sure that you submit your discovery, which is any questions you that want your former employer to respond to. Also, you want to submit what's called request for production of documents. That means any documents that you believe your employer has. And you believe that if you received them, are going to help your case. Also, you're gonna want to pose the decision-maker your manager, regards to the discrimination that you experience. And guess what? They're gonna do the exact same to you. and you gonna wanna make sure that you have an attorney who is advising you through that process. So making sure that you answer those questions correctly, making sure you provide the correct documentation and definitely making sure they prepare you for a deposition. And that's why you need an Employment Law Attorney. Also, lastly, make sure you actually are hiring an Employment Law Attorney, right? There are tons of attorneys out there there're Traffic Court Attorneys, there're Family Law Attorneys, there're Criminal Law Attorneys. You need to hire an Employment Law Attorney. Employment Law is filled with pitfalls is filled with tiny issues. And it's very particular law, right? It's not even very intuitive type of law. So you want to make sure you hire someone who deals with that type of law on a day to day basis. And it's gonna be able to help you, one, determined if you have a case, two, to determine how much your case is worth. And also is gonna have the experience to prepare for those depositions and respond to that discovery. Also, you need to collect, important and relevant information. Some documentation that you need to collect once you received Right to Sue letter, is documentation that you received in regards to maybe your determination or your suspension or your demotion. Also, you gonna wanna to collect any emails or you know, any other documents that you received from your employer that you believe can help your case. And lastly, and really most importantly you're gonna want to start collecting names and contact information of your former colleagues and former coworkers. And you're gonna wanna do that because if you have the right attorney, that attorney is gonna say, "look, let me keep those names, Let's get this contact information and let me talk to those colleagues. So I can draft what's called an affidavit." And you want an attorney that's gonna do that because some information or some things that you're gonna allege happened, may not be documentation that they have, right? You may be saying, "Amber you know what X, Y, Z occurred." And then when I get all the documentation back from your employer, I can't show the X, Y, Z occurred because that wasn't documented. But you know what having another person collaborate your testimony, say, "Yeah, this X, Y, Z occurred." You may not see documentation that it did occur but they have personal knowledge that it occurred is gonna help your case. And it's most times it can make or break your case. So it's very important to collect that information. Now, lastly and at least sometimes most appropriate to some people. There are certain damages that you can recover when you file a complaint with the Federal Court, right? So once you receive that Right to Sue letter, you know the next step is to file Federal Court. Now, the damages you can incur, or kind of a raise are about three pools of damages. And the first pool of damages was called Lost Wages. Now I have a handy-dandy whiteboard. Sometimes I'll bring it out every once in a while. And this whiteboard kind of gives you an idea of some of the damages you can collect. First, lost wages. So let's just say this, let's say, you work at a company and you received a $50,000 salary. You've been off of work for about a year, God forbid it was a year. So you already had $50,000 worth of lost wages that you can recover when you file your lawsuit, okay? So we have the $50,000 there. You also can recover what's called compensatory damages due to the discrimination you experienced. And so let's say you, looking $50,000 worth lost wages, you know, I'm gonna say that I have a $100,000 worth of compensatory damages. You know, you went to a therapist the therapist may have, put you on any type of medicine prescribed medicine to you. So you said, "Look I want a $100,000 worth of compensatory damages. you may be able to get more under Title VII as well. You can recover that. You also can recover what's called punitive damages. If you go to trial. Punitive damages are gonna be recoverable. When the jury determines that your employer needs to be punished for their actions. It's a tight recovery but it is recoverable. So you all, if you have nothing out of this video what I want you to understand is one once you receive that Right to Sue letter, it's time to act. It's not time for you to sit around and think about it. It's time to take some proactive measures to determine if you want to proceed with your lawsuit because you do know that you only have 90 days to proceed once you received that Right to Sue Letter. So the sooner you act, the sooner you get the information that's gonna be relevant, it's gonna prepare you to move forward with a lawsuit, the better. Also you all. I want you to understand that you need to hire an Employment Law Attorney. You don't have to hire me, but hire someone who's actually experienced in this area of the law. Believe me, everyone, doesn't practice employment law, just like everybody doesn't practice criminal law. So get somebody who's actually gonna be able to thoroughly represent you. You all, I hope this video was helpful. If It was, please like and share it because I wanna make sure, other individuals have access to this content so they can understand their employment law rights and they can understand what to do if those rights are violated. You all, our goal is to gain at least 10,000 subscribers in 2021. So if you subscribe and you shared, I'll really appreciate it. And as always, please enjoy your Lunch Break. Have a great day. Bye. (upbeat techno music)