If you are fired from work in Oklahoma

[1stTimeCaller]

what would be the reasons to hire an attorney?

I was under the impression that as an 'At Will Employment' State the person that was fired would have little to sue about.

This person was not fired due to their being in a protected class of employee. They were fired because they were incompetent in their job.

The reason I'm asking is that a guy from work was canned and has now hired a mouthpiece. I had to write down all of the problems that I had with him as did a few other lead hands. I really don't want to go to Court because of this dooshbag.

[Whet]

To try to get a settlement from the company....

Don't worry too much, just document as much as you can remember - with approximate dates, if you recall.....

[goingoneight]

Fox Collision Center? :eek:

[walkoffsooner]

i was in oilfield for over twenty years, the guys we jetted that got lawyers always got some kind of settlement usually over a improper evaluation. It showed progress or a average employee then they got axed. Without showing a spiral downward. We might could of beat it but they just paid a years salary and went on the road.

[1stTimeCaller]

We have a policy that when we change the scribeline of our MWD tool to match the scribeline of the motor all 4 people are required to be on the floor. He wasn't on the last job and they messed up the measurements and it causes a huge problem.

I wonder if that's enough to avoid a settlement?

[SoonerBorn68]

I'd think so. I had a second hand do the same thing. We didn't have a "4 on the floor" policy on scribing & I thought the dude couldn't screw it up. He aligned it 180 degrees out & we dropped 5 degrees in 35 ft (had a 3 degree motor on during the curve). That cost us a cement job & 4 rig days.

I told the boss he didn't know how to do the job so they assigned him elsewhere. 2 more leads have complained & he still hasn't been fired. :mad:

[StoopTroup]

Pay him off...you oil folks are rolling in dough. :D

[Okla-homey]

what would be the reasons to hire an attorney?

I was under the impression that as an 'At Will Employment' State the person that was fired would have little to sue about.

This person was not fired due to their being in a protected class of employee. They were fired because they were incompetent in their job.

The reason I'm asking is that a guy from work was canned and has now hired a mouthpiece. I had to write down all of the problems that I had with him as did a few other lead hands. I really don't want to go to Court because of this dooshbag.

Sometimes employees have employment contracts. If so, and they can show they were terminated in breach of that contract, they have grounds to sue. Otherwise, your post is generally accurate.

P.S. That doesn't mean an outfit who cans an "at-will" employee, who later files or threatens to file a lawsuit, won't throw some money at him to make the case go away. General observations: It costs real money to litigate and sometimes its cheaper to write a check early on than go to to the mat even if you "know" you'll win unless the the case is extremely likely to be dismissed because its groundless and the fired d00d is extremely unlikely to turn up evidence or law to support his contentions.

Also, during the early stages of a lawsuit (called "discovery"), the plaintiff can get a lot of dirty laundry on the defendant company. Sometimes its worth money to avoid having to gather and hand over all that stuff and have it become part of the public record. Finally, settlements can include confidentiality agreements which keeps the guy who gets the check from blabbing about the situation. That can be a good thing for the company (or even Michael Jackson) too.

Bottomline: If you get sued, don't blow it off. Instead, consult an attorney.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Don't take the law into your own hands, you take it to court!

Now shoot him in the ***, Rusty!

[handcrafted]

This thread is good advice, 1TC. Oklahoma is an at-will state, but there are certain times a fired employee can sue for wrongful discharge.

One is if there's an employment contract (like Homey said). The thing is, if you have the wrong language in your employee handbook, it can be considered a contract. Such as, if you list out the reasons for being terminated or have a progressive discipline policy. Those things are not bad, as long as you follow them. If your company had some kind of written discipline policy that they sent to all the employees, and you bypassed it, that could be a problem unless you had a dang good reason. These cases are very fact specific (which is why they get settled a lot -- they cost a lot to defend).

Other thing is something called a "public policy" violation. This would be if the guy got fired for refusing to engage in criminal activity, or because he took time off to vote, jury duty, etc. Doesn't sound like that's an issue in your case, but it is out there.

There really is no such thing as complete "employment at will" anymore, but Oklahoma is a pretty employer-friendly state as far as that stuff goes.

[1stTimeCaller]

Thanks folks. I'm just a peon and didn't do the actual firing. It appears that he was fired due to quite a few lead hand's evaluations/reports on his performance.

I have never seen a handbook and have never seen any policy on getting fired for being lazy and worthless. Pretty much everything we had to sign to get paid, truck allowances, reimbursed for out 5th wheel travel trailers, etc. does state something like 'this does not constitute a contract between you and the company'.

[sooneron]

MY wife is Director of HR for her company in this regions and has to deal with this **** all the time. She hates settling, but it can be the cheapest route sometimes. Law dogs cost around 700 bones an hour up here.

[SoonerBorn68]

So, the moral of the story is to sue your former employer--even if you're a burden to the company--& try to come up with a dollar amount that would be cheaper to settle than to litigate. Gotcha.

I learn something new here every day. :)

[StoopTroup]

I thought the Bush Administration would have this Country turned around by now.

They lied to me.