Both employment agreements and severance agreements can have a lot of legal implications. From detailing pay rates to prohibiting competition, each provision in an employment or severance agreement can assign you a new legally enforceable right or responsibility. To fully understand the rights and responsibilities an employment agreement has given you, and to best know when those rights are being infringed upon, it’s a good idea have your contracts reviewed by a professional employment attorney.

For the most part, employment in New York is at-will, which means that an employer can fire or lay off an employee for any reason whatsoever, or no reason at all. Nonetheless, your employer cannot break the law in ending your employment by using penalizing or prejudiced reason. To determine if your employer used an improper reason for terminating you, you should consult an attorney who is well-versed in employment law. By reviewing any contract you signed and assessing all the facts of your situation, an experienced attorney will be able to determine if you have a strong case for a claim such as Wrongful Termination.

Generally, an employee is not necessarily going to be automatically eligible for severance, unless it was included in the employee’s contract, because the majority of employment is at-will. That being said, there are instances where an employee can negotiate receiving severance due to specific circumstances, such as when the employee being let go was employed for a certain amount of time. Additionally, if the employer has a policy in place regarding providing severance at termination, this may constitute an implicit contractual right to severance, even though this was not contained in the employee agreement.

It is often in the best interest of the employer to propose severance via a severance agreement when firing an employee, because these agreements essentially offer the fired employee money to leave without complaining. However, the employer may not be required to pay if there was “cause” to terminate employment, even if a severance agreement had been negotiated into the employment contract. “Cause” refers to circumstances including, but not limited to, criminal conviction, gross negligence, and company reputation damage.

Basically, most severance agreements are complicated, even when they seem straightforward. This is why you need an expert attorney like those at Shalom Law to help you decide whether or not it is in your best interest to settle, depending on the agreement offered and the type of evidence you might have against your employer, either circumstantial or direct. Each case must be considered on their own, as each is unique, but oftentimes the severance amount an employer offers may not be enough.

Often, an employer may have an insidious reason for offering severance: to avoid a retaliation or discrimination claim. A severance agreement under these circumstances frequently includes a relinquishment of the employee’s right to sue and is possibly offered simply to avoid a potential lawsuit. In these situations, it is in the best interest of the employee to hire a lawyer to review the agreement and advise on whether or not the agreement should be accepted.

Here in New York City especially, among other places, employers might request employees to sign a severance agreement that grants several appealing benefits in exchange for waiving the right to sue for discrimination. These agreements must be thoroughly reviewed with the assistance of a discrimination lawyer. The Shalom Law legal team has years of experience working in the Employment Law field here in New York City, representing both employers and employees in legal action, and we know how to get both sides to reach a mutually beneficial agreement that doesn’t leave one side hurting.

If you are in need of an experienced and accomplished New York City severance agreement lawyer to ensure your rights are well protected in negotiations or litigation, contact our firm at (718) 971-9474 today.