Quit First, Fired Later

Author: Dustin Wetton

During these difficult economic times, many of us are changing our employment status to seek better economic opportunities. Thus, some of you might be inspired to quit your job for whatever reason and seek employment elsewhere or just take time off. In doing so, lets say that you are respectful to your employer and you give them your 2 week notice. Yet, what happens if that employer is so insulted by you quitting that after you give your notice, they fire you instead. Does this mean you were fired or you quit? What happens if you only had one day left on your notice and they “let you go early?” Questions like these are often asked to employment law attorneys who are helping those recently unemployed receive unemployment benefits. However, I believe that the same logic can be applied to severance pay and other “benefits” of being let go from a job.

Unemployment benefits are normally only allowed to those that leave their job involuntarily. Meaning, if you quit your job because you wanted another job, or just wanted to, then you most likely are not able to receive unemployment benefits. Yet, under California law, if you give notice of your last day and your employer cuts that day short, then you are qualified as leaving involuntarily, even though you intended on leaving a couple of days, or weeks or months, later. If you give notice and they fire you prior to that notice date, “or let you leave early” then you are defined as being “fired” under California law.

In one case the Unemployment Appeals Board held that “the fact that a person may set a date for resigning from employment is not the controlling factor. The most pertinent consideration is whether the employee could have remained working for an employer on the actual date they left.” If they could have continued working, were willing and able to do so, but the employer was not willing them to do so, then they consider it as an involuntary discharge. Thus, if this would happen to you, then you would be eligible for unemployment benefits. Using this same logic, I believe it can also be argued that you would be entitled to the same benefits of severance pay and other “fire-triggered” benefits that are owed to you in regards to your employment contract. Thus, just because you were quitting, gave notice, and were “let go early”, you may still have certain important rights and decisions to make regarding how to handle any transition periods in your employment.

Scope of the Law

Author: Eric Townsend

Over the last few days I have been developing the first class of a pre-law course for students on their way to law school. As a starting off point, I thought it would be good to first categorize the law from a macro level and then go into each area of law in more depth. As I was developing this initial class I realized this might also be a benefit to anyone who was curious about our legal system, and I decided to write this blog to give my readers a brief and broad overview of our legal system.
The main aspect of our legal system can be summed up in one word, “rights”. Rights correspond with duties. Rights are derived in two ways: first, common law rights of each person as defined by case law; second, Constitutional and statutory rights of each person created through our political system. Once a right is established any breach of the corresponding duty makes the violator guilty of breaking the law. In most cases these rights and duties are simple, but in some cases they are not. An easy example, in a contract for the sale of my car to Bob I have a duty to provide the car when agreed. A more complicated example, if property law says that I am the owner of land and it is my right to be free from intrusion onto such land then all of society owes me a duty not to enter my land.
Our common law rights were borrowed from English courts that developed them over hundreds of years. These common law rights are also known as natural rights. They are used to determine the right of each in their own person and the rights of society in property. Although common law rights cover a broad number of actions, if there is a statutory right it takes precedent over common law rights.
Statutory rights derive from two sources: first, from the Federal government through the limited powers given them by the Constitution; and second, from state governments through the 10th Amendment for any other actions not reserved to the Federal government or where they have failed to take action. States can delegate their authority to local governments like cities and the Federal government can delegate their authority to agencies like the EPA. So a statute will be valid if it does not violate this Constitutional framework.
So to understand our legal system, the law has been broken down into several different areas of law to easily explain and define those rights and duties. Property law determines when a person has a right (aka interest) in property, and also the duties of all people regarding that right. Criminal law seeks to define and limit the rights people have in their actions (based on the political beliefs at that time), and uses liberty and monetary punishments to enforce those limits when that duty is breached. Tort law, like criminal law, seeks to define and limit the rights people have in their actions, and uses monetary punishments to enforce those duties. Tort law additionally seeks that the tortfeasor restore the injured party by monetary contribution in the amount of the harm caused. Contract law seeks to enforce the heightened rights created when people agree to them and to enforce breaches of those duties. Constitutional law provides the framework for our Federal government, it gives limited guidance on the framework of state governments, and it establishes the rights and duties as between the Federal and state governments, between the people and those governments, and between ours and foreign governments. Other types of law will generally be offshoots of these overarching legal areas.
From a broad view, this is our legal system.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this blog, email us at blog@lauruslaw.com.

Probate Prices on the Up and Up in San Diego

Author: Dustin Wetton

New court legislation in San Diego has caused the prices of filing for probate to increase in San Diego. As of the beginning of this month, the cost to file a probate filing with the court is $395. The filing cost is just the amount needed to create a probate case, it does not include the probate code regulated attorney fees, court fees, and examiner fees also associated with probate.

Yet before indulging into these costs, let’s reflect again on what exactly probate is. The probate court is a court designed to distribute and administer a person and their properties once that person dies. This is done for every individual that does not have a trust. Even if that person has a will, they still encounter and run through the gamut of the probate process. The only way to avoid probate is to have a valid trust established.

Thus, for purposes of this article, let’s say that there is no trust established by the deceased person. To initiate the process of distributing their assets, the remaining loved ones will have to file a petition for probate and incur the recently increased costs in San Diego of $395. This is just the initial filing fee. Once the documents are gathered and an examiner or attorney is appointed, then the court will add additional fees to the process. These fees are regulated by the probate code. One such fee is the court fee. The court fee ranges from $1,000 to $3,000 dollars, depending on the amount of complexity with the case. The other fee, the more costly one, is the attorney or the examiner fee. This fee is determined by the probate code by matching a certain percentage with the amount of the estate. For instance, if the estate values at $100,000, the attorney fee is 4%. This percentage heavily increases as the estate increases. The attorney fee can quickly reach $25,000. Determining the value of the estate is done by valuing all real and personal property of the deceased person, thus, it adds up fast when there is a car, jewelry, a house, and even clothing.

Therefore, with all the fees associated with probate, either the estate itself will foot the probate bill and thus disinherit some beneficiaries, or the remaining loved ones will have to pay the fees. Yet, as mentioned above, the probate process can be side-stepped through an established valid trust and estate plan. Further, the probate court only administers to the deceased person and their assets, a whole different court and different fees will be in addition to the cost of probate if there are any minors left behind. To best side-step these fees and costs, an estate plan is needed. Contact us at (619) 796-2381 to setup a free 30-minute consultation to start your estate planning.


If you have any questions or comments regarding this blog, email us at blog@lauruslaw.com.