...NewCorp Scenarios Legal Brief LAW 531 April 16, 2012 NewCorp Scenarios Legal Brief Question 1: What liabilities and rights do NewCorp and Pat have in this situation? What legal principles, such as statutory or case law, support those liabilities and rights? Answer: State of Vermont is an “at-will” employment state. The definition of “at-will” means the employer or employee can terminate the contract at any time without liability to other party. This gives NewCorp the right to fire, hire, or terminate for any or no reason as long as it is not illegal. When the employer terminates the contract it is a revocation of authority and when the employee terminates the contract it is renunciation of authority. NewCorp used revocation of authority to discharge Pat and did not violate any rights. Pat acknowledged that the contract he signed clearly said that NewCorp observed employment at will with respect to discharge. Written employment agreements are always enforceable in the court of law (Cheeseman, H. (2010). On the other hand when Pat signed and accepted employment he received the NewCorp personnel manual. In the manual he found that NewCorp has the policy or process in place for dealing with unsatisfactory employees. This gives Pat an implied impression that NewCorp “at-will” policy is limited. If Pat gets legal help and shows that he relied on the provision of the manual in continuing his employment with company or that the law of promissory estoppel applies, Pat could...
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...NewCorp Scenarios Legal Brief Many organizations in the United States of America do not have the budget for staff counsel within their company. NewCorp is a business that has found themselves in legal matters and is seeking an assessment on ways to handle these circumstances from a consultant in the organization before refering matters to an attorney and incur costs. This assignment reviews three scenarios involving NewCorp. We will examine liabilities the organization and complainant are subject to as well as any statutory or case laws relevant to support the findings. Legal Scenario One Legal scenario one explains that NewCorp relocated an employee named Pat to manage the real property division of the business. After 90 days of employment NewCorp determined that Pat was not an appropriate fit for the position and terminated him with 30 days of severance pay. Pat feels as though he was wronged because he was not given the opportunity to improve through a corrective action plan as promised upon hire. Because of this, Pat believes that NewCorp should not be able to discharge him at will and believed that this action was taking place because of statements made outside the workplace. NewCorp and Pat both have rights in this scenario. Fortunately for NewCorp they are located in Vermont that is considered an “at will” state. This means that an employer can terminate an employee for any reason at any time as long as it does not relate to a Title VII protected class that includes...
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...Sandra Allen NewCorp Legal Scenarios 4/2/2012 Trina Eaddy Many legal issues can occur when hiring a new employee and not giving them all the information that is required by law. All information needs to be in clear detail and must be understood by the new employee. When a manager presents the information clearly, he or she is helping to prevent legal issues in the future. In this paper I will be talking about three different legal encounters. In each scenario I will be talking about what legal issues could happen in each one. Legal Encounter 1 There are some liabilities and rights that both NewCorp and Pat have in this scenario. If Pat decides takes action against NewCorp for terminating him, he cannot use employee at-will. At-will employment means that companies and employees can break employment without liability under the American law. Pat looked at his personnel manual that deals with unsatisfactory employees. In this manual it states that that no employee can be terminated until they are notified of the deficiency and then placed on an action plan. However, since NewCorp personnel manual states this information NewCorp could be looking at a law suit from Pat for termination. Legal Encounter 2 This scenario is shows sexual harassment is happening at NewCorp. This scenario is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When people work together he or she should not get involved with anyone he or she works with. Supervisors should not get involved...
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...NewCorp legal issues NewCorp does not have an in-house legal counsel and utilizes Team B staff members to serve as associate legal counsel. Primary responsibilities include advising and recommending courses of action to management covering a range of legal encounter scenarios. Team B members analyze each scenario and provide management with associated legal principles, potential liability concerns, and courses of action. During the past week the Team has received three scenarios and management wants a substantive collaborative effort within one week. Scenario One Pat has been working for three months when his boss discharged him with 30 days of severance pay, because of unsatisfied work performance. NewCorp Personnel Manual was provided to Pat upon his acceptance of employment. NewCorp personnel manual provides an outlined process for dealing with unsatisfactory job performance and provides a corrective action plan. Pat never was approached by his boss on any job performance issues (University of Phoenix, 2011). “Any divergent words or nonexistence of other legal clauses may demonstrate that the employer was obligated to have adequate cause prior to an employee's layoff or dismissal” (Employee Issues, 2009). The law has put limitations on employment at will as it is fallen into unpopularity because employees rely on the conjecture that they have an indispensable job safety provided to them through promises, measures, and policies that side with what is written in...
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...Legal Encounters Legal Encounters In week five Team C examined three scenarios in which a company, NewCorp may or may not have done something illegal. The scenarios were examined and the results written to be handed to management to make a decision on a course of action. The team was responsible for providing management of any potential breaches of law that may have occurred. Legal Encounter One Pat has the right to ask for the reason he is being let go. However, NewCorp does not have to divulge this information because they are an at will employment company. NewCorp, does no t have to tell why Pat is being let go, and it is in their best interest to protect that information. However, if NewCorp at any time told Pat the reason for the termination was related to performance they are liable to uphold the " Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance/Corrective Action Plan." By giving Pat a company document that stated: " If the job performance of an employee is unsatisfactory, the employee will be notified of the deficiency and placed on a corrective action plan. If the employee’s performance does not improve to a satisfactory level in the specified time period, termination will follow." NewCorp has entered into a contract to do just that. This is protected under the contract law, which states "A contract is a legally enforceable promise" (“Breach of Contract Law & Legal Definition,” 2012) in the event of a breach of contract a civil case can be brought...
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...NewCorp Scenarios Legal Brief Adriana Astte Carolina Mercado Liliana Mejia Rodriguez LAWP/531 March 28, 2013 Professor Ken Marc NewCorp Scenarios Legal Brief Legal Encounter 1 What liabilities and rights do NewCorp and Pat have in this situation? What legal principles, such as statutory or case law, support those liabilities and rights? Liabilities include: wrongful termination, a breach of contract, and freedom of speech violation. Issue: NewCorp fired Pat without notice of unsatisfactory performance after being vocal at the local school board meeting. Explanation: Vermont is an at-will state; therefore Pat is an at-will employee giving NewCorp the right to fire Pat. That means that employees can leave the employment or be terminated without reason. However, according to Kohn (2012), the at-will doctrine applies “only in cases where there is no oral or written contract for an ascertainable or definite term of employment.” NewCorp’s personnel manual included a section on unsatisfactory performance. Pat signed the contract to show understanding of the policies. Pat also acknowledged that if performance was poor, Pat would have a chance to improve by being placed on a corrective action plan. This contract implied that if any employee was not meeting expectations would have a chance to develop. Given the situation that Pat and the family had just relocated from another city implies that NewCorp would have covenant of good faith which “limits employer...
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...Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Tester Pester LAW/531 November 7, 2010 Lame Duck Abstract This paper analyzes the legal principles and remedies behind the three scenarios described in the simulation. Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Legal Encounter One NewCorp hired Pat Grey as a property manager. NewCorp fired Pat after three months. Pat thinks it is not related to performance but other outside issues. NewCorp maintains that it is not working out with Pat, so he is let go. Legal Issues 1. Doctrine of promissory estoppels. 2. At-will Employment. Vermont is an “at will state.” According to the definition of “at will” on the Department Of Labor, Vermont, (n.d) website, An employer may terminate an employee for any reason as long as it is not one of the protect classes e.g.: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or mental, or physical disability. NewCorp has not terminated Pat for any of these reasons. Retaliation or discrimination against employees or applicants who have alleged employment discrimination is unlawful (Cheeseman, 2010). Pat has not made any employment discriminations complaints. Pat has also acknowledged signing a statement of employment at-will so he should be aware that he can be let go anytime for no reason. Pat can still establish a claim for wrongful termination under promissory estoppels. He will have to prove the termination breached a specific promise made by NewCorp (Cheeseman, 2010). According...
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...Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Tester Pester LAW/531 November 7, 2010 Lame Duck Abstract This paper analyzes the legal principles and remedies behind the three scenarios described in the simulation. Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Legal Encounter One NewCorp hired Pat Grey as a property manager. NewCorp fired Pat after three months. Pat thinks it is not related to performance but other outside issues. NewCorp maintains that it is not working out with Pat, so he is let go. Legal Issues 1. Doctrine of promissory estoppels. 2. At-will Employment. Vermont is an “at will state.” According to the definition of “at will” on the Department Of Labor, Vermont, (n.d) website, An employer may terminate an employee for any reason as long as it is not one of the protect classes e.g.: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or mental, or physical disability. NewCorp has not terminated Pat for any of these reasons. Retaliation or discrimination against employees or applicants who have alleged employment discrimination is unlawful (Cheeseman, 2010). Pat has not made any employment discriminations complaints. Pat has also acknowledged signing a statement of employment at-will so he should be aware that he can be let go anytime for no reason. Pat can still establish a claim for wrongful termination under promissory estoppels. He will have to prove the termination breached a specific promise made by NewCorp (Cheeseman, 2010). According...
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...NewCorp Legal Scenarios Employment laws and regulation are created to protect the rights of employers and employees. The relation between employer and employee creates a variety risks that affects both parties. Businesses have to analyze the consequences of dismissing an employee, and take the appropriate measures to prevent legal issues; however, some agents are not aware of employment regulations and make decisions that violate the rights of employees, which create big risks for the organization. This context consists of legal encounters involve NewCorp; as an employee of the company, one is require to provide an assessment to latter refer matters to an attorney to save money on legal advice, and have a brief answer to the questions asked in each encounter. Legal Encounter 1 What liabilities and rights do NewCorp and Pat have in this situation? NewCorp have the rights to dismiss an employee at will; however, the company can be liable of wrongful discharge. Pat has the right to know the indication of the problem and to a corrective plan to improve his deficiencies before he is dismiss. What legal principles, such as statutory or case law, support those liabilities and rights? Employment at will is a doctrine supported by statutory law, and wrongful discharge is supported by case law. NewCorp hire Pat as a manager, Pat signed an agreement that show his understanding that NewCorp observed employment at will and it can discharge anyone without a motive; however, part of...
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...Legal Scenarios LAW531 Legal Scenario 1 In this scenario, Pat relocated to Vermont to become a property manager for NewCorp. After working for three months, he was advised that he would be let go with severance pay for 30 days. Pat was never notified of any problem, and the supervisor told him only "that things were not working out". When he was hired, Pat received NewCorp's personnel manual, which outlined the company's process for handling unsatisfactory employees. He also signed a document at that time which stated NewCorp "observed employment at will with respect to discharge". The manual stated that notification of deficiency, and a corrective action plan would be put in place for the employee whose job performance was unsatisfactory. This was so the employee would have a chance to improve his work performance to his employer's satisfaction. Then, only if the employee did not correct his deficiency within a specific time frame would his employment be terminated. Pat has the right, according to the manual, to notification of unsatisfactory work performance, as well as a corrective action plan to rectify same. NewCorp's decision to discharge Pat with no indication of unsatisfactory job performance, nor a corrective action plan in place can be considered wrongful discharge. “Wrongful termination happens when an employee is discharged from employment for illegal reasons or if company policy is violated when the employee is fired” (Doyle 1996, pg.1). Pat...
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...Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Law 531 Charles Cook February 7, 2011 Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Legal Encounter 1 NewCorp violated a breach of contract with Pat in this case. While NewCorp is an “at-will” employer, they provided an employee handbook to Pat which outlined the procedure for disciplinary process involving the requirement of corrective action. NewCorp failed to follow their own process which supports the wrongful termination suit. Additionally, the case law which would be applicable to this case is Dillon v. Champion Jogbra, Inc. The case has many similarities which can support Pat's claim of wrongful discharge. For example, the implied contract relating to the action stated within the employee handbook to follow a procedure for discipline and/or corrective action prior to discharge. Because NewCorp did not imply that the employee handbook was not a contract at any point within the handbook. Therefore, Pat has grounds for action against NewCorp. Legal Encounter 2 NewCorp has two issues to face in this scenario. The first being the sexual harassment by Sam toward Paula. Sexual harassment is “defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: submission to the conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or submission to or rejection of the conduct...
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...Scenario 1: Most employee handbooks come with rules and regulations and terms of contract of the employment that any reasonable person can qualify as an expressed and implied contract. This is so because procedures, policies, and promises are present in an employee personnel manual. For instance, once an employee receives a handbook from the employer, the interpretation of this action constitutes contract. Therefore, Grey has a case if he chooses to sue NewCorp for a breach of implies employment contract expressed in the Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and Corrective Action Plan Manual. Employment laws of the land make it illegal to terminate an employee in retaliation for an employee’s freedom speech, freedom of religion or freedom of privacy. So, if part of the reasons Mr. Grey’s job is receiving termination is for his freedom of speech at the school meeting that will be unconstitutional. The right of an employee not to be demoted, retaliated against, or fired for engaging in such legally permitted activities depends on laws of the particular states in which he or she live (Sack, 1998). The United States Supreme Court ruling states that an employee cannot be terminated in retaliation for the exercise of free speech. If Vermont is one of the state that have enacted laws governing citizen’s freedom of actions occurring outside employment sites, Mr. Grey can sue Newcorp for wrongful termination if the school meeting speech was the reason for his...
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...The Three Encounters 1 The Three Encounters of NewCorp Pamela A. McCullough University of Phoenix The Three Encounters 2 The Three Encounters of NewCorp FastServe Inc. is a 25 million dollar branded sports Apparel Company with an employee roster of 350 people working in the company in direct marketing. The company has two online marketing and distribution channels which they opened up for boys and girls. They now moved 10 percent of the workforce to manage the online distribution. In the simulation it states that technology began to pose problems for FastServe Inc. soon after the website went live. FasteServe inc. wanted their target audience to be Generation Y and although the 3-D ‘drape-n- see” mannequins on the site attracted that market it was hard for them to download from the site causing people not to buy any items from the site. This then became a problem which made it hard for technological investors to be feasible. Since this form of selling the merchandise was not working FastServe Inc. decided to move out of online distribution. The fallout of this decision was expected and the online division had to be downsized. Now the only thing to do is to keep employees based on their job performance and skill levels and give them a new job definition. All other employees will have to be released. The senior Management in the Human Resources department has to consider the legal implications of the decisions of the company. They...
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...NewCorp Scenarios Legal Brief Three legal encounters that NewCorp is contending with are unsatisfactory performance and corrective action plan, sexual harassment and discrimination, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance Legal Encounter 1 NewCorp hired Pat in Vermont causing Vermont state law to apply to this legal encounter. NewCorp had Pat sign a document stating that NewCorp must issue a corrective action plan but failed to uphold this contract by eliminating him from position with 30 days of severance pay. Pat feels he was wrongfully discharged because his supervisor had a different view on a school panel board but Pat claims needs to be supported by the termination papers that were filed in the human resources department. Vermont is an at-will state which means that an employee can be terminated for any reason, at any time. However, the document that Pat signed is an enforceable contract that the state will deem enforceable for Pat’s benefit (Kohn, 2008). Pat will be given his managerial position with NewCorp and will be placed on corrective action as outlined in the document both NewCorp and Pat signed. To help protect NewCorp from further issues, managers and supervisors should turn in written documentations of coaching’s conversations and corrective action that is signed by the employee to show that NewCorp have done everything in their power to protect their employees before termination is a necessary option. Legal Encounter 2 ...
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...#1 Liabilities Facing Newcorp When an employee fills out an application, the form concludes with the acknowledgement of employment at-will. This practice is widely used unless employment parameters are established by a contract. Pat acknowledges signing a statement of employment at-will, but he claims the employee manual illustrates the procedure used when contending with unsatisfactory performance. The case of Dillon v. Champion Jogbra, Inc. examined the ambiguity of the manual. On the first page of the manual, according to Jennings (2006), “The policies and procedures contained in this manual constitute guidelines only. They do not constitute part of an employment contract” (p. 728). As the reader reads each section, he or she may misinterpret a policy as binding. The court ruled that the manual stated the company’s intentions on the first page. Pat’s assumption of outside related concerns is merely an assumption. The company did not express any knowledge of Pat’s opinions made at the school board meeting. The first amendment of the Constitution would have protected Pat’s freedom of speech. Suggestions for Newcorp The employment at-will statement does not always protect employers from possible litigation. Employees at-will may still establish a claim for wrongful termination under promissory estoppel if that employee can prove the termination breached a specific promise made by the employer (Jennings, 2006). A jury would determine if the promises substantiated a change from...
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