HR Specialist: Ohio Employment Law

Ohio hits employers with more record-keeping requirements and fewer rights than other states. Aggressive attorneys don’t stop with federal laws like FMLA, ADA and FLSA: they use state and local living-wage statutes, rural codes, plus discrimination and other laws to sue employers for sky’s-the-limit damages. This Ohio-specific newsletter arrives monthly to help sue-proof every aspect of HR. Written in plain English, it’s your insurance policy for staying in step with current interpretations of state and local laws – and staying out of court. Learn more about HR Specialist: Ohio Employment Law and the free report you’ll get when you subscribe...

Employees who think they’ve suffered discrimination sometimes have a hard time finding a lawyer to represent them. Then, instead of accepting that maybe they don’t have a case worth pursuing, they file their own suits and try to represent themselves.

Take those cases seriously. Get your attorneys involved right away.

The problem: Judges often give so-called pro se litigants the benefit of the doubt, and you want to be ready to go no matter how the judge rules.

Recent case: John Mishak filed a lawsuit without the help of an attorney, alleging he had been denied FMLA leave.

He didn’t do a very good job drafting the complaint, and the employer asked the court to throw out the case. The court gave Mishak one more chance to rewrite the complaint. (Mishak v. Akron Public Schools, No. 5:09-CV-351, ND OH, 2009)