S6 Ep.128: Legal Consultation With Carey & Associates PC: What to Expect

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Navigating employment disputes can feel overwhelming, especially when you're trying to decide if seeking legal counsel is worth the investment. Mark pulls back the curtain on what makes a legal consultation truly valuable and why the $400 fee for a session with Carey & Associates PC delivers exceptional return on investment.

The consultation process starts before you even get on the call. By submitting your detailed narrative and relevant documents like severance agreements in advance, our team thoroughly reviews your situation to maximize your time together. While officially scheduled for 30 minutes, Mark admits his tendency toward thoroughness often extends these calls to a full hour—providing comprehensive guidance during a critical decision-making period in your career.

What separates these consultations from casual legal advice is the structured roadmapping approach. Mark walks through establishing clear, realistic goals beyond vague notions of "justice," which in employment law typically translates to financial compensation. He candidly discusses the "shaming" element of holding employers accountable through well-crafted affidavits while providing honest assessments of case viability. Perhaps most refreshingly, he reminds clients that doing nothing remains a valid option (often the most economical one), and that lawsuits should be considered only as a last resort—unusual perspective from someone in the legal profession.

Ready to gain clarity on your employment situation? Schedule a consultation with Carey & Associates PC, where attorney-client privilege protects your conversation while you explore all available options with an experienced employment law specialist. Our goal isn't to push you toward litigation, but to provide the information you need to make confident decisions that align with your personal and professional priorities.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Employee Survival Guide please like us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We would really appreciate if you could leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player such as Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review will inform other listeners you found the content on this podcast is important in the area of employment law in the United States.

For more information, please contact our employment attorneys at Carey & Associates, P.C. at 203-255-4150, www.capclaw.com.

Disclaimer: For educational use only, not intended to be legal advice.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, it's Mark and I wanted to give you a quick
discussion about consultationswith our office.
If you called Karen AssociatesPC, we do do paid consultations
for about $400 for roughly halfan hour.
But you know, you know me, I'mlong-winded and I talk a lot, so
you may get more out of itbecause I go for an hour.
That's pretty, you know, prettydarn well worth it.

(00:23):
But I want you to understand,when you call for consultation
or you're considering aconsultation with our office,
we're working to try to developnew ways to convey to you the
importance of what we do andjust being transparent.
Why is a paid consultationworth it?
That's the question and I'mgoing to give it to you straight

(00:44):
and narrow.
You're going to give it to youstraight and narrow.
You're going to be able to.
Before the consultation with me, you're going to send me your
detailed narrative of facts.
You're going to send me yourseverance agreements, some other
documents.
I will attempt to read most, ifnot all, of the material before
the call.
So I'm spending more timebefore the call to understand
the call with you, to maximizeyour time with me.

(01:04):
So that's my time out of theday because I want the
consultation to be informative.
I want it to be far-reaching.
I also want it to be productiveand provide for process,
provide for roadmapping what'sgoing to happen, to give you the
risks of what you're doing butalso explain to you the benefit

(01:27):
of proceeding in a case,potentially against your
employer.
I'll also warn you against theaspect of filing lawsuits and
why they're like the least, thelast resort thing you ever want
to do.
I'm going to pack thatconversation so heavily that
you're going to be pretty muchoverwhelmed by the time you get
off the phone.
You'll have a clearunderstanding of what you want
to do, and that's my job is toget you to the end point to make

(01:49):
a decision one way or another.
And it's not influencingdecision which way you go, it's
simply, if there's no case there, I'm going to basically, you
know, express to you there's notmuch we can do because I can't
make up stuff, but usually whenwe have consults, we take them
on.
We know what we're getting intobeforehand.
We take a lot of notes beforewhen the calls come in and we

(02:11):
can decipher the quality of thecase before the consultation.
So I got a leg up before thecall to make it more important
for you.
So when you're calling us for aconsultation or deciding
whether to do a consultationwith our office, nine times out
of 10, you'll be speakingdirectly with me and if not

(02:32):
because of scheduling issues,I'll have someone else on the
phone who's equally as qualifiedas myself to do the intake.
Because all we do here isemployment law and everyone does
the same thing in terms oftrying to figure out you know
how can we help you roadmap thecase, figure out a solution and,
most important I can'tunderestimate this to establish

(02:54):
what is your goal.
If you start this case Like,you, have to have that goal in
mind ahead of time, and theeasiest example is people want
more severance pay because it'snot enough.
So, establishing what your goal, think about that before the
consultation.
We'll go through that and askyou specifically.
Sometimes, just simply askingthe question forces people to
really reconcile.

(03:14):
What is my goal.
I will dispense with an easy oneof justice.
You need to understand.
Yes, we have an Americanjustice system.
The employment area is coveredby the courts.
Justice is equivalent to moneyin terms of what happens in
these cases.
So I need you to understandthat the best that we can do and

(03:38):
our system is not perfect, andI've had many judges say the
same thing in front of myclients in private caucus
sessions and mediation.
You know an apology is helpful,but money is what does it, and

(04:04):
typically that's what the goalshould be is to you know, put
you into a transaction which youbenefit from, so you can have
money to land in the next joband your economics are not
screwed up because you lostincome.
So it's income replacement.
So the goal is really important.
There is other implicit goals inthe process of pursuing
employers.
I call the shaming goal, whereyou basically shame your
employer, because your affidavitthat you hear me talk about so
much, the affidavit is reallywhere we call out the employer

(04:26):
through your narrative, yourwords.
We obviously choreograph thatin such a way that demonstrates
the legality of the employer'sbehavior or illegality of that,
and shames the bad actors andwhat they did, and so shaming is
part of the process.
Or you want to put it this wayhaving your employer reconcile

(04:49):
what they did against you.
Whatever way you want to phraseit, I don't really care.
But I'm going to pack thatconsultation in a way that moves
you, moves you from point A toZ and you know how to do it and
that's what I believe.
I mean, I don't know what otherpeople do, but you know if
that's what I think consultationshould be.
So we're thinking about you,we're thinking about the

(05:12):
consultation process and why youshould do it.
If you're considering it withour office, we're going to make
it worthwhile for you.
It is a confidential discussion.
You're talking with an attorney.
It's attorney-client privileged.
However, we don't retain youwe're not your attorneys until
you actually engage us in awritten agreement.
So you just need to understandthat.
But the conversation you'rehaving is, in fact, privileged.

(05:34):
We have no reason to tellanybody else about it.
But it's designed just for you.
And if your spouse wants toshow up, their spouse can
participate in that.
If you have a family friendwho's a lawyer, the lawyer can
participate in the conversationif you need to.
But outside of that group, theconversations between just us
and yourself, because of thelevel of the attorney-client

(05:57):
privilege, only flows so far.
So again, a very impactfulconversation designed to allow
you to understand choices ofoptions.
And remember the first optionyou can always choose is do
nothing.
It's the cheapest.
Consider that.
I'll actually remind you ofthat.
And the last option of filinglawsuits, I'll tell you stay

(06:17):
away from it.
You don't want to pay legal feesto lawyers?
Yeah, you heard from me.
I'm a lawyer, but it'ssomething you need to hear,
because most lawyers don't tellpeople that.
It's just a.
Our job, ethically, is to putourselves in your shoes to make
decisions for you.
If you had understood the law,that's what lawyers do.
So one of the aspects is don'tspend money on legal fees if you

(06:38):
don't have to.
You might want to spend moneyon legal fees.
If you don't have to.
You might want to spend them oncollege education or your
mortgage.
But working in a veryconservative decision-making
process is really what I guessI'm driving into the
consultative process with you inthat half hour to hour long
conversation I'm having with you.
That's what the consultationmeans to me and I want it to
mean to you.
So walk into it prepared, walkinto it providing documents and

(07:01):
information to us, and we willprovide the feedback you're
looking for to allow you to makethe decisions one way or the
other.
Okay, just a few thoughts aboutconsultations with our office.
Enjoy, Take care.