Legal Terminations: How to Avoid Costly Mistakes and Lawsuits

Here’s how to create no-drama exits and minimize the chances a former employee sues.

During this 75-minute live and interactive online training, learn how to:

Prepare for legally safe terminations.
Discover the step-by-step process and airtight documentation you need to defend firings, reorganizations and mass layoffs.
Conduct lawsuit-proof (and dignified) meetings.
Learn where, when, with who and what to say in termination meetings.
Ease the stress for you and the employee.
Your actions make the difference between a calm, amicable exit and a bitter, litigious headache.

Definitive, practical guidance on how to avoid the negative legal and emotional fallout of terminations.

Terminations of any kind are the biggest legal flash points for employee lawsuits. Just one mistake in the process — a discipline error, documentation slip-up or the wrong words in a termination meeting — can cost millions. Recent example: A jury awarded over $25 million to a regional manager who alleged she was wrongly fired and blamed for an incident involving the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks. And a black clerk at a Saks Fifth Avenue store claiming she was unfairly fired netted a jury award of $9.3 million.

Plus, you have to deal with the emotional fallout, risk of violence and co-worker morale.

Do you and your management team know all the correct steps to avoid this trouble?

On October 4, put an end to termination anxiety by participating in the newly updated Legal Terminations training. Attorney Anniken Davenport will provide a clear explanation of what HR and supervisors must do to prepare for and carry out a termination, including the particularly delicate handling of remote employee terminations and workers returning from protected leave.

Don’t wait for a lawsuit to learn how you should have terminated a worker. Now is the time to prepare yourself and your supervisors to avoid the legal risks and emotional fallout that inevitably follow terminations.

Agenda for Legal Terminations

The best, fairest way for supervisors to document discipline and performance to support legal terminations.
How to terminate nonperforming teleworkers, even if they’re working from home as a disability accommodation.
The correct step-by-step protocol for termination meetings (where, when, with who and what to say). An impartial witness is key.
How to use (and write) legal severance agreements to avoid lawsuits now that federal agencies limit what you can include.
The specific steps in terminating remote workers — it's different for these employees.
Correcting termination mistakes — correctly and quickly to avoid or reduce liability.
How to comply with WARN and mini-WARN laws when laying off employees.
When and how to contest unemployment benefits — and when to skip this step for strategic reasons.
When to call in back-up and why you need an emergency plan.
When to leave the door open for rehiring and when not to.
Comprehensive advice on creating airtight termination policies and procedures.

Interactive Q&A time included

Get answers to your own tough questions about terminations, RIFs and layoffs.

Anniken Davenport is a noted employment law attorney and the editor of the HR Specialist: Employment Law newsletter series. She has authored several books, including Bullet-Proof Your Employee Handbook and Overtime & Other Tricky Pay Issues, published by HR Specialist. She is the co-author of the upcoming Labor & Employment Law for the 21st Century by Prentice Hall. Anniken has served as a professor at Penn State University, where she taught business law and HR management, and she directed the Legal Studies Program at Wilson College. Her legal career includes representing government units in discrimination and other employment law cases and representing school districts in labor negotiations.

Anniken Davenport Attorney and author

Professional Certification Credit Hours Included With This Webinar

Business Management Daily is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDC) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.

The use of this official seal confirms that this Activity has met HR Certification Institute’s® (HRCI®) criteria for recertification credit pre-approval.

Register now and receive these free bonuses!

Fire an Employee Legally

Everyone who registers will receive our new white paper, Fire an Employee Legally. Your company may need to downsize for economic reasons. Or perhaps you’re looking to get rid of a problem employee with behavioral/performance issues. Terminating someone is never pleasant or easy. That doesn’t mean you can’t let an employee go, but you must do it the right way.

4 free issues of The HR Weekly

You'll also receive one month of exclusive access to The HR Weekly – our comprehensive service with all the HR advice and compliance tools to simplify your job … and to keep your organization out of court. So that you continue to benefit from The HR Weekly, we will continue your subscription after that for the then current rate, unless you tell us "no, thanks" – your choice.

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If Legal Terminations fails to meet your needs in any way, we will refund 100% of your tuition – every penny you paid – but your course materials and registration bonuses will be yours to keep. No hassles, no questions asked.