Employment

Published on: January 5, 2012

Good Georgia Lawyer Wins Appeal Against Fulton County School District To Deny Georgia Teacher Educator Unemployment Benefits

Williams Oinonen LLC is happy to report recent success in representing a Georgia educator with decades of experience who had her contract non-renewed with the Fulton County School District. To add insult to injury, the school district denied her employment benefits putting this divorced mother at risk of losing her home and not being able to provide for her young children right before the Christmas holiday.

Williams Oinonen LLC generally bills clients in all employment matters but in this case, we accepted this matter on a pro bono basis as this successful educator had been a loyal client of ours in the past and was in an emergency situation in need of urgent help. It was the least we could do to help a dedicated and committed educator who had served the Georgia public schools for so many years.

We are happy to say that we were able to win our client’s appeal and she was awarded back pay and her unemployment benefits just in time for Christmas. We were humbled to receive from her the following email which she gave permission to share:

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Published on: October 10, 2011

Legal Rights For Teachers Under Georgia Law

By Williams Oinonen LLC

Today a Barrow County judge ruled against a former teacher who alleged that she lost her job due to a posting on Facebook.

Ashley Payne resigned from her job as a teacher at Apalachee High School in the Fall of 2009 after an individual who stated they were a parent sent a complaint about postings Ms. Payne had made on Facebook showing her drinking alcohol and stating that she was headed to a game of “Crazy Bitch Bingo” at an Atlanta restaurant. Ms. Payne claims she was under pressure to resign however the school district disputes this claiming she volunteered.

Ms. Payne is now graduate student at UGA and filed suit asking the court for a determination stating she was entitled to a due process hearing. It is unfortunate that Ms. Payne did not ask for a due process hearing, speak to her union advisor, or consult an attorney prior to resigning.

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Published on: September 6, 2011

Georgia Employment Lawyer Discusses Wage and Hour, Overtime Violations

By Williams Oinonen LLC

Today, the AJC reported that a Georgia restaurant chain called “This Is It” has been ordered by the feds to provide 230 workers $104,000 in back pay and fined nearly $1,900 for letting minors work illegal hours.

The U.S. Department of Labor took legal action after investigating the restaurant and found violations of record keeping, overtime, and minimum wage laws which protect workers. Furthermore, it found the restaurant chain wrongly classified employees as “exempt” consequently failing to pay them overtime (time and a half their regular rates) for hours over forty in a work week as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Moreover, the restaurant chain did not pay workers minimum wage because it illegally deducted lunch breaks and uniform expenses. Additionally, underage workers were allowed to work restricted times. Finally, the company failed to maintain correct records of hours worked and money earned by the workers.

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Published on: July 21, 2011

Legal Rights For Georgia Teachers Relating To Demotion, Termination, Non-Renewal of Contract or Reprimand

By Williams Oinonen LLC

This is the second part of our article concerning the rights of Georgia public school teachers relating to termination, non-renewal of contracts, demotions, reprimands and the like.

You As A Contracted Public School Employee, Teacher Or Principal Are Entitled To Proper Service:

All notices relating to suspension from duty must be served to the employee either personally, or by statutory overnight delivery, or by certified mail. Service is considered “perfected” when it is deposited in the United States mail, sent with sufficient postage stamps, and delivered to the last known address of the employee.

You Have A Right To An Attorney Present:

Any teacher, principal, or other public school district contract employee against whom such charges are brought shall be entitled to be represented by counsel and, if upon request, can also subpoena witnesses and production of documents.

The Requirements Of The Hearing:

(1) The hearing is conducted in front of the local school board, or they can designate a tribunal made up of between three to five impartial people who have expertise in academics. This tribunal will then submit findings and recommendations to the local school board who will make the final decision.

(2) The hearing will be transcribed and the board is responsible to pay for that expense. The transcript does not need to be typed unless the decision is appealed to the State Board of Education which in that event whomever is making the appeal must pay.

(3) An oath must be taken by all witnesses during the hearing to tell the truth.

(4) All questions relating to legal matters such as admissibility of evidence is decided by the chairperson or presiding officer and can be appealed. In all hearings, the burden of proof shall be on the school system, and it shall have the right to present the opening and closing.

Decision And Appeals:

The local board must make a decision at the hearing or within five days of the hearing. If a tribunal hears the matter they must offer their recommendations within five days and then the school board has ten days to make their final decision. Appeals can be taken to the state board of education.

If you are a teacher or principal who finds yourself in this situation, don’t go it alone. Remember, you are entitled to have an attorney represent you at the hearing.
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Published on: July 20, 2011

Employment Law For Georgia Public School Teachers: Understanding Your Legal Rights

By Williams Oinonen LLC

The Official Code of Georgia §§ 20-2-940, et seq., governs the demotion,

dismissal, and suspension of professional, certificated school district employees in Georgia. This law also governs the termination and suspension of school district employees who have a contract for a definite term. The law applies equally to all employees who have contracts with the school district, but does not apply to at-will employees without contracts.

Termination or suspension can only be based only on the eight grounds listed in

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Published on: July 18, 2011

Rules For Interpreting Contracts In Georgia

By Williams Oinonen LLC

Contract Newer.jpg The Official Code of Georgia § 13-2-2 sets out “rules for interpretation of contracts generally.” The law states that the following rules, among others, shall be used in order to arrive at the truthful interpretation of a contract. This means if you are having a business dispute with your partner, vendor, tenant, or another company and a question turns on what the contract between you two actually means or whose version (yours or theirs) interprets the contract correctly, consider the following rules:

(1) Parol evidence is inadmissible to interpret the written contract.–Parol evidence is anything that is outside of the four written corners of the piece of paper that the contract is actually written on. This could mean conversations that you had over the telephone or notes written on a dinner napkin at a restaurant you were eating at during contract negotiations. The only time this outside evidence (“parol evidence”)should come in to interpret the meaning of the written contract is if it the written contract is somehow ambiguous (unclear) and it is obvious that the written contract wasn’t intended to represent the entire agreement.

(2) Words generally should be interpreted by their usual and common meaning; but a technical word used in particular trades should be interpreted the way they are generally used in that line of business. The local use of a word can be brought in as evidence to determine the actual meaning intended by the parties who entered the contract. In other words, if you and I were chicken farmers and we entered into a contract where you would sell me 500 Rock Cornish broilers, if there was any dispute as to what a “broiler” was, the courts would look to the ordinary local use of how Georgia chicken farmers interpret “broilers.”

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Published on: June 4, 2011

How to Negotiate a Non-Compete Contract In Georgia Part One

By Williams Oinonen LLC

Thumbnail image for Contract Newer.jpg “How can I be sure that this non-compete contract is fair and enforceable?” is a question many clients ask us whether they be employers or employees.

For employers:

Our advice is this: Don’t go it alone! Believe it or not, there are many employers who think that it is okay to just “cut and paste” whatever contract they find googled over the internet. This is the fastest way to draft a bad contract. The most important thing for any contract is enforceability. That means you know that in the event of a dispute your contract will hold up as “enforceable” in a court of law. Cutting and pasting a contract is the surest way to have your important legal agreement fail to hold up in a court of law, thus failing to protect your and your company.

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