Where to start

This library is now large enough to get lost in. This page is the map: find the sentence that sounds like your week, and read in the order given. Every path ends the same way, because every situation does — with your dates written down.

You were fired yesterday. Start with What at-will does not mean — the rule and its exceptions, so you know what question to ask. Then Your last paycheck (that clock is already running) and Your personnel file (send the request today; the template is one paragraph). If a packet came with the goodbye: stop, and switch to the next path.

There’s a severance packet on your table. The severance agreement on your kitchen table, then A severance agreement, annotated — read yours against the specimen. Note the five-business-day right; ask for more time in writing if you need it. Then the case files: the packet, so you know what an honest review sounds like — including when the answer is “sign.”

You’re still employed, and something is wrong. How California’s retaliation framework actually works — before you complain, so your complaint is protected and specific. Then the field guide for your industry, which knows your workplace’s particular statutes. Then Requests in writing, quietly. Document; don’t resign in the heat; the constructive-discharge pages explain why the order of operations decides claims.

Your paycheck has never quite matched your hours. Reading your wage statement and A wage statement, annotated — run the five-line check on six months of stubs. Then Meal periods, rest breaks and, if you’re salaried, Exempt or not. If you’re called a contractor: The ABC test. The arithmetic pages were built to be used, not admired.

You reported something, and things changed. The retaliation primer, then Four years of Lawson v. PPG for the burden framework, to see how the sequence is proved. If what you reported was fraud on a government program, read Qui tam, in plain terms — and then stop talking to everyone except a lawyer.

You have a record, and a job you want. The conviction on your record and the job you applied for — the sequence the law requires is probably not the one you experienced. Then Requests in writing for the background-report template.

You work for a public entity. Start with the Stone note — which statutes reach your employer is the threshold question — then the retaliation primer’s public-employer trap: some of your clocks run in months, not years. This path is short because the first step is the urgent one: The clocks, complete, today.

Prefiere leer en español. Empiece con Sus derechos en el trabajo, siga con la guía de su industria — hogar, campo, costura, restaurantes, almacenes, construcción, limpieza, hoteles — y tenga a mano Cartas por escrito. Si hay un acuerdo de separación en su mesa: El acuerdo de separación: antes de firmar, hoy.

Every path converges: write your timeline — facts, in order, with dates — check The clocks, and then, if the pattern you’ve documented runs one direction, write to us. The library was built so that you’d arrive knowing the rules of your own situation. Arriving is the part it can’t do for you.

Related writing: The clocks, complete · Before our first call: the worksheet

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This article states California law as of its revision date and is analysis, not legal advice. Reading this site does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney advertising.