Civil Lawsuits

[cbg]

You know what would turn me off as an employer?

Not the fact that you filed a lawsuit. That is your right and in some situations, possibly even your duty.

What would turn me off to you if I were hiring is not the fact that you filed a lawsuit, but your obsession with hiding it. It would make me wonder just exactly what it was there that you didn't want anyone to see. Smoke, fire, that sort of thing.

[Harold99]

You know what would turn me off as an employer?

Not the fact that you filed a lawsuit. That is your right and in some situations, possibly even your duty.

What would turn me off to you if I were hiring is not the fact that you filed a lawsuit, but your obsession with hiding it. It would make me wonder just exactly what it was there that you didn't want anyone to see. Smoke, fire, that sort of thing.

Your concern makes no sense to me.

I am a contractor and I just walked away from a medium size job because the homeowner nearly bragged to me how she recently sued two other contractors that worked in her house. Another seasoned contractor also told me not to work for her. Suing an employer is a very aggressive move, regardless of the outcome. I'd want to keep it confidential too. I also will never work for a lawyer again because they use the sleazy court system to get over on good people.

If you had ever sued someone you'd know that people form their own opinions of it, and it's best to keep it to yourself...especially to a potential employer.

[cbg]

I'm not suggesting that he announce the lawsuit. I'm saying that in the larger scheme of things, whether someone did or did not file a lawsuit is not something employers as a whole care about and if the information happened to fall in my lap, which does happen, I'd wonder why he was so bent on hiding it.

That said, if I were a contractor I wouldn't want to work for someone who'd been suing other contractors either - I can absolutely understand your position on that. But the kind of hiring I used to do (I don't do hiring anymore although I do have input into the final choice for some positions) is not the same kind of relationship that a contractor has with a homeowner.

[Chiral]

I've done some testing. Without including my middle name I've had some employers follow up in the process of hiring. Of course this could have resulted the same with my middle name on my resume. Its this constant what if in the back of my mind that doesn't let me rest at night or day.

Your concern makes no sense to me.

I am a contractor and I just walked away from a medium size job because the homeowner nearly bragged to me how she recently sued two other contractors that worked in her house. Another seasoned contractor also told me not to work for her. Suing an employer is a very aggressive move, regardless of the outcome. I'd want to keep it confidential too. I also will never work for a lawyer again because they use the sleazy court system to get over on good people.

If you had ever sued someone you'd know that people form their own opinions of it, and it's best to keep it to yourself...especially to a potential employer.

Bragging about it is one thing and remaining quiet about it is another. I have no idea what was going through her head. Would you have done the same had you uncovered it unexpectedly? Meaning that you might have reasoned she had a right in doing so and such.

The way it feels is that i might as well have committed a crime as far as reputation for employment and such goes.

[cbg]

Harold raises an interesting point, and one I admit I had not considered.

Chiral, are you looking to be hired by a firm, or an individual?

[Harold99]

Bragging about it is one thing and remaining quiet about it is another. I have no idea what was going through her head. Would you have done the same had you uncovered it unexpectedly? Meaning that you might have reasoned she had a right in doing so and such.

The way it feels is that i might as well have committed a crime as far as reputation for employment and such goes.

It probably wouldn't have mattered if she bragged about it or if I discovered it on my own. Since I knew the details of each case I felt she used her personal skills (well spoken, assertive, good looking, White, 70 years old, etc) to trounce on two contractors. She sued a flooring contractor for $15K but did not use the proceeds to fix her floor...so just how bad was her floor and reason to sue? She also sued a drywaller for spraying texture and then left the walls textured...so again, how bad was it?

As cbg and I inferred, a smaller company would be very apprehensive of a person who sued their employer. A larger company deals with that on a daily basis and cannot be hurt as badly.

[Chiral]

Harold raises an interesting point, and one I admit I had not considered.

Chiral, are you looking to be hired by a firm, or an individual?

A company

[cbg]

In that case, my original answer stands. It is exceedingly unlikely that a company will do a background check that includes whether or not you have been involved in a lawsuit such as you describe, and if the information does somehow fall in their laps it is unlikely they will care. You are seriously overthinking this.

If it were an individual, then as much as I never thought I'd be saying this when I got up this morning, Harold would have a valid point.

[Chiral]

Maybe so. If John worked for and filed a frivolous lawsuit against Company A, then yeah, Company B may be hesitant to hire John. Of course, Company B has to become aware of the lawsuit. If John discloses that he worked for Company A, then Company B might find out about the frivolous lawsuit by calling Company A for a reference. If John doesn't disclose that he worked for Company A (i.e., lies to Company B about his employment history), then Company B might never find out about it. On the other hand, if John had a legitimate claim against Company A, and Company B does not stray from legal practices, then Company B should have nothing to worry about. The distinction between frivolous and legitimate litigation is one of the reasons I asked questions (which you ignored) in my prior response.




Unless your case was resolved at the appellate level and resulted in a published opinion or received unusual publicity, there's virtually no chance of that happening because trial court records are generally not available via general internet searches.




And maybe a prospective employer will find a lawsuit that someone with the same or a similar name filed and assume it's you and not hire you for that reason. In the world of "what if" and abstract, hypothetical questions, virtually anything is possible.



Yup (and the "explanation" in post #7 in the thread is all but unintelligible).

" The distinction between frivolous and legitimate litigation is one of the reasons I asked questions (which you ignored) in my prior response."

I wouldn't see it as frivolous. The first and only ruling (talks about the dismissal) mentions that a dismissal by sua sponte can occur by frivolous, immunity, malicious or there's no stated claim. It then centers on immunity on the national agency defendents and concludes the dismissal for lack of jurisdiction based on this. Also, there was no litigation as it was dismissed from the start.

[llworking]

Your concern makes no sense to me.

I am a contractor and I just walked away from a medium size job because the homeowner nearly bragged to me how she recently sued two other contractors that worked in her house. Another seasoned contractor also told me not to work for her. Suing an employer is a very aggressive move, regardless of the outcome. I'd want to keep it confidential too. I also will never work for a lawyer again because they use the sleazy court system to get over on good people.

If you had ever sued someone you'd know that people form their own opinions of it, and it's best to keep it to yourself...especially to a potential employer.

Both of my brothers are contractors and neither one of them, nor any of their friends will ever work for an attorney again, because every one of them got burned by an attorney.

One of them dug out a basement to make a half basement a whole basement, and then built a mother in law suite for the guys MIL. It was being financed by the sale of her small home. The contractor deliberately did a labor only quote and told the lawyer that he would have to buy all of the materials himself. However, he did give the lawyer an idea of how much the materials would cost. The lawyer bought much higher end fixtures and appliances than were needed and when the money from the MILs house was gone, he refused to pay any more labor to the contractor, because the job was over budget. He then sued the contractor for walking off the job.