How important is it that employment law probable cause be found in New York?

I’m Jonas Urba, a New York employment lawyer, with employment law reality check talking about probable cause. It’s so important for any employment discrimination case. Generally, around New York State, a discriminated employee can file at the EEOC or with the New York State Division of Human Rights. The most frequent thing that comes up when I’m discussing these issues with potential clients is “Oh I got a finding of probable cause” or “I got a right to sue letter” and people get all excited. Those just start cases. It’s so important to put a lot of time into any case up front. Probable cause just means that if you can prove everything you say you can prove you might win. And that does not mean that you’re going to win it just means that you might. You don’t need to prove all the evidence up front but you need to have really strong facts. And that takes a lot of time. The amount of time that I spend talking to people on the phone to make sure they have strong facts; whether or not they have all the evidence doesn’t really matter. But it’s all about the facts. The facts are just everything. It’s unlike a personal injury case where you got hurt. You got rear-ended in a car, a lawyer can send out a letter that you’re hurt and you get money. Employment law is nothing like that. It actually requires you to have a plausible theory of recovery with strong facts. So it’s important for you to call a lot of employment lawyers because I’ve seen cases, you can go and Google the orders from the New York State Division of Human Rights. They’ve got all the orders, hundreds of orders on line and you can see how many of those cases were lost by good lawyers, really good lawyers. Sometimes a lawyer will even be able to overturn a case that got dismissed out but then they lose it at the hearing, so what good did that do? It’s really important that your first communication come out strong with really strong facts. So make sure you call a lot of employment lawyers and make sure you have your facts together. Whether it’s just things you remember, maybe you kept a notebook, maybe you have a calendar, maybe you recorded someone. None of those things by themselves are gonna win your case. It’s the total picture. And an employment lawyer who does this for a living will hear that on the phone. You don’t need to go and meet with someone. So call some employment lawyers. Make sure you have your facts together. Talk to a bunch of them and see who spends the time with you before you go and retain one. Call me, I’m Jonas Urba, I serve the entire state of New York, and I can be reached at (212) 731-4776. Attorney Advertising.

https://www.eeoc.gov/data/definitions-terms