need legal advice FAST!!!

[brianm4289]

so my situation isn't very relevant to fastlane issues but I figured some of you guys might know information that could help me out. anyways, my current job is in the auto industry where you are paid "flat rate" in most cases where you are paid based on the work you do. I was hired into a place that had a verbal agreement that I would be paid $10 per hour but I would be paid $14 per hour once I went to flat rate. Well they gave me my first 5 paystubs all on the 5th week and I noticed I was making $14 per hour from day 1. So I assumed since I had college education in the field and $14 was mentioned as a flat rate pay that they just started me out at that rate. My boss has handed me pay stubs ever since and has had to look at them and here it is 3 1/2 months later and now he is saying they "just noticed the error" and I am liable to pay the $4 per hour back from the last 3 1/2 months! I live in Michigan and cannot find any information regarding the matter because everybody who has an "overpaid" situation was overpaid a wage that they didnt orignally start at. I need to know what to do, because if they dont have any solid case against me which I cant see how they would then I will be quitting this job instantly and pursuing my fastlane plan... thanks in advance guys

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

You might be better served asking on a legal forum, Yahoo answers, or maybe Quora ... I'm NOT AN ATTORNEY but my initial thoughts is the employer should EAT the error. If I was the company owner, that would be my resolution.

 

[brianm4289]

thanks for the quick response MJ, I have looked around on google and yahoo and had no luck as everybodys situation is slightly different than mine. I have also learned a valuable lesson from reading your book and have decided in a worst case scenario if I am required to pay it back I will take responsibility for being dumb enough to ride hitchhiker on somebody elses fastlane and look at this as a positive situation to propel my hunger for fastlane freedom even more

 

[brianm4289]

i wish i knew 100% that they have no case against me so I can quit immediately and focus solely fastlane

 

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[Bozigian]

Legal Help



FreeAdvice Legal Forum

To figure out whether you have a good case, it helps to know that lawyers break each type of lawsuit ("cause of action" in attorney-speak) into a short list of legally required elements. It follows that as long as you know what the elements are for your type of lawsuit, it's usually fairly easy to determine whether you have a good case. For example, a lawsuit against a contractor for doing substandard construction would be for breach of contract (because the contractor agreed either orally or in writing to do the job properly). The legal elements for this type of lawsuit are as follows:

Contract formation. You must show that you have a legally binding contract with the other party. If you have a written agreement, this element is especially easy to prove. Without a written contract, you will have to show that you had an enforceable oral (spoken) contract, or that an enforceable contract can be implied from the circumstances of your situation.

Performance. You must prove that you did what was required of you under the terms of the contract. Assuming you have made agreed-on payments and otherwise cooperated, you should have no problem with this element.

Breach. You must show that the party you plan to sue failed to meet his or her contractual obligations ("breach of contract" in legalese). This is usually the heart of the case -- you'll need to prove that the contractor failed to do agreed-on work or did work of unacceptably poor quality.

Damages. You must show that you suffered an economic loss as a result of the other party's breach of contract. Assuming the work must be redone or finished, this element should also be relatively straightforward to prove.

 

[brianm4289]

i just dont know if it is worth all the court and legal actions because courts seem to favor the company over the employee most of the time. he will say we have a verbal agreement and I believe I might have signed something stating I would be paid $10 hourly in the very beginning which I cant remember at this point. The issue is I am a very honest person and if I believed from the beginning that I was only supposed to make $10 per hour I would have corrected it... but after 5 weeks of work and THEN getting paystubs I could only assume the wage was correct. Then after 3 and a half months they just happen to "notice" it seems a little fishy to me on the employers part. The manager physically handed me the paystubs from the 5th week up until now and they are not in envelopes or anything so for him, payroll, accounting, and the other service manager who handles paystubs to miss this for 3 and a half months seems rediculous I guess my main concern is, I know that I didn't do anything wrong and the question is do I bite the bullet and pay the money back in one lump sum and leave, do I continue to work there and get money taken out of checks on top of losing $4 per hour, or do I refuse to pay and quit then worry about them taking legal action? this is an idiotic situation on part of the employer to allow it to go this far if they didnt plan on paying me that wage and this is another excellent reason why the fastlane book is so correct on "control, responsibility, and hitchhiking".

 

[ZCP]

Maybe you lobby for a retroactive raise, show them the good work you did, and convince them you will be more than worth the rate moving forward as a valuable, happy, productive employee. Show them how they profit moving forward from entrusting you with the early raise.

 

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[JEdwards]

What are we talking about here, $2k if you are working full time?

Ask them how much it would cost them to take out an ad, go through the hiring process, replace you and then retrain the next guy?

Also since you have been there 90 days, you really should ask for a raise.


As a business owner I would eat it.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Your state's EEOC department might be able to help, especially if they fire you because you refuse to pay back. Sounds like the owner of the business is a Sidewalker.

 

[brianm4289]

well I called a lawyer and he literally laughed and said "what kind of cheap a$$ do you work for?!" haha... then about an hour later I was told by my boss "oh well don't worry about that, we will just forget it happened and move forward" so the situation is resolved and now I can focus my energy back to my fastlane plan and get closer to my goal one day at a time!

 

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