Family Law
Family law is a unique area in the law due to the emotional complexities involved.

A superior family law attorney is able to balance the need for caring, reasonable, and cooperative negotiations against establishing and keeping firm boundaries to protect the client. Most people don’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars and years of their lives fighting over minor issues. We are mindful that we work with issues that are very dear to individuals’ hearts.

We are highly selective and limit the number of family law cases that we take in order to provide our clients with the best service and legal expertise available. Our clients understand that the extra time and attention to their case will help ensure favorable results and long term solutions that will bring peace to their life and save money in the long term. Attorneys are not all created equally and in order to protect your family and your finances your decision of whom to represent you will be a key.

We handle family law cases which include:

• Divorce
• Paternity
• Custody Litigation
• Child Support Litigation
• Parenting Plan Modifications
  
• Non-Parental Custody Actions
• Pre-Nuptial & Post Nuptial Agreements & Cohabitation Agreements

Employment Law for Employers
People are essential to your business, however having employees is far from simple. Long & Associates offers business clients experienced, sophisticated, and cost effective representation concerning all aspects of personnel-related legal matters. We offer tailor made solutions to meet our clients’ needs by taking their entire business into account. We work with our business clients to ensure compliance with employment standards in order to prevent costly and time consuming claims. These solutions not only minimize the risk of claims, but help to ensure a more harmonious and productive work force, thus increasing profits for the business. If you don’t know your rights – or respect your employees rights – your productivity, profitability and reputation will all suffer.

Our firm handles cases involving:

• Counseling & Preventative Law/Training
• Employment Litigation
• Employment Privacy
• Personnel Policy Manuals
• Noncompetition Litigation
• Workplace Investigations
• Regulatory Compliance Review

Employment law issues are complex and difficult. Employment law is regulated by state and federal law as well as administrative codes. These cases involve strict deadlines and strict documentation procedures. We guide our clients around these landmines quickly and efficiently to save time and money.

Employment Law for Employees
We represent employees whose rights have been violated by their employer or who need assistance involving a legal dispute with their employer.  We will only take cases if we believe that we can help our clients.

Our firm handles cases involving:

• Contract negotiations
• Age Discrimination
• Family and Medical Leave Act
• Harassment
• Race Discrimination, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Gender Identity Discrimination
• Retaliation Claims
• Wage and Hour Claims

Information about an employee’s rights
At Will Employment
In Washington, as in most states, employment is generally “at will.”  This typically means that unless you have an employment contract or union protections, your employer can fire you for any reason or no reason whatsoever.  However, your employee cannot fire you for a reason that violates the law. 

Some exceptions to employment at will include:

1. Discrimination based on age, sex, race, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
2. Harassment based on any of the above characteristics.
3. Retaliation because you have opposed or made a complaint about illegal discrimination or harassment.
4. Retaliation because you have done something that you are legally obligated or entitled to do.

Family and Medical Leave Act
This law probably applies to you if you work for the government or for an employer of 50 or more employees within a 75 mile radius of where you work and you have worked for the employer for at least one year.

The FMLA permits eligible employees to take off work up to 12 weeks per year because of their own or a family member’s serious health condition or because they become a mother or a father.  A “serious health condition” qualifies if any of the following are true:

1. The condition has resulted in a period where the patient cannot work or perform regular daily activities for more than three consecutive days and involves either two doctor’s visits or one doctor’s visit and a prescription.
2. The condition is chronic and requires continuing treatment.
3. The condition has resulted in an overnight hospital stay.

It is against the law for your employer to take your job away from you during your leave or upon your return, unless you are given a comparable job.  It also violates the law if you are retaliated against for taking FMLA leave or attempting to do so.

Harassment
The most common type of harassment is sexual, although you can also be harassed based on other protected characteristics.

Harassment can include conduct such as unwelcome sexual advances, threats, vulgar or offensive language or visual images, inappropriate jokes, shunning, physical assaults, disparate treatment, or other “bad” behavior, so long as the behavior would not have been directed at you had it not been for your protected status.  A boss who simply does not have social or people skills does not necessarily equal harassment.

Retaliation
When an employee has the right or obligation to take action, the employer cannot punish the employee for taking that action. 

For example, you cannot legally be disciplined, demoted, shunned, denied a promotion or fired because you have:

• Filed a workers’ compensation claim
• Reported child or adult abuse as a mandatory reporter
• Reported your employer to the INS for immigration issues
• Complained to OSHA
• Complained to the Department of Labor
• Provided truthful testimony in court or in a deposition
• Voted in an election
• Answered a call for jury duty
• Complied with a subpoena
• Served in the military
• Filed a claim for unemployment benefits
• Reported illegal behavior by a coworker, supervisor, or the company
• Complained about discrimination or assisted the victim of discrimination.
• Complained about violations of wage and hour laws.

Wage and hour laws
The law requires that most employers pay at least minimum wage for all hours worked (Washington State minimum wage is $8.07 for the year 2008).  Employers who are “nonexempt” must be paid 1 ½ times their regular wage for all hours worked over 40 in a work week.  Some managers and other professionals are “exempt” from the overtime laws.  Many employers mis-categorize employees as “exempt” when they do not qualify.

Some examples of wage law violations include, but are not limited to:

• Your employer has you perform tasks before you clock in or after you clock out
• Your paycheck is too low or bounces when you try to cash it.
• You are classified as “exempt” and your employer docks your pay for being gone for time periods less than one day.
• Your employer makes deductions from your paycheck that were not authorized by you or a court.
• Your employer fails to pay you in full for your earned vacation time after you quit or are fired.

What you should do if you believe that your employer has violated your rights

1. Tell your supervisor about the issue to which you believe violated your rights.
2. Document with the date, time, content of meeting, response, and any witnesses present, your meeting with your supervisor.
3. If the problem is not remedied complain to your supervisor’s boss, to Human Resources and to the corporate hot line, in writing.
4. Save any evidence documenting the issue.
5. Contact a lawyer as soon as possible to make sure you do not miss any legal deadlines.

Deadlines
Employees cannot protect their rights unless they take some kind of action, such as filing a civil rights complaint or a lawsuit, within a reasonable time frame after something bad happens at work.  You should act as soon as possible to make sure you are not left without a remedy.

All information on our website is meant to be generally informative.  To find out whether it applies to your situation in particular, you should consult a lawyer of your choice.  Viewing the information contained on this web site shall not create an attorney-client relationship and one should not rely on information herein without seeking the advice of legal counsel.