You’ve already established that you have a strong California employment law case, but how long will the process take? It’s a reasonable question to ask because your time is valuable—to you, to us, and to your family. We want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your time and moving forward through this process with confidence and integrity.
At Brandon Banks Law, we get this question frequently. People want to know how long they need to plan ahead as this process plays out. The simple answer, however, is “it depends.” That might sound like a copout, but ultimately, there are a variety of factors that go into how long your case will take.
The Circumstances of Your Case Dictate the Timeline
While there is no formula that we can easily plug things in and get a magic timeline out of, we do lean on our experience to help inform future outcomes. What is true for one client may not be true for the next, but it’s likely we’ve handled cases similar to yours and will be able to better inform you about potential timelines based on that experience.
An employment law case could be six months, or it could be four years. It’s not always as simple as the more complex the case, the longer it will take, either. In some cases, employers (or you, the plaintiff) will have an incentive to wrap a case sooner rather than later.
Plaintiffs Generally Push the Timeline Forward (But Employers May Delay)
In many California employment litigation cases, the plaintiff wants to move the process forward, while the employer involved may want to delay. There could be a number of reasons for this.
From your perspective, if you’re suing your employer for a violation of your rights, unpaid wages, wrongful termination, or other employment matters, you want to get paid now rather than months or even years down the line. From your employer’s perspective, they may want to delay your case from moving forward to conduct their own investigations into your claims or to see if you signed a binding arbitration agreement, which may require you to engage in arbitration proceedings, rather than litigating your case in the traditional way inside the courtroom. Your hope would be that your employer wants to resolve the case in an efficient manner rather than using delay tactics to keep your case from moving forward or resolving.
Who benefits more from the delay? Generally, that answer is your employer because they have more financial and legal resources at their disposal. That’s why it’s helpful, when possible, to work with an experienced and dedicated California employment law attorney who is able to stand up to companies across the state and ensure your rights are protected and upheld.
There are Outliers, Especially Because California Courts are Busy
When we set expectations, we always want to be sure our clients understand that a definitive answer to this question is hard to come by. We can sometimes provide an estimated timeline on certain portions of the case based on what we know about your case and our experience, but the California court system is infamously backed up due to the significant population and the often litigation-heavy system in our state.
This backup can take a case that would traditionally take nine months to complete and force it to take over two years to resolve. There is generally no right to a speedy trial in California civil cases, so while we will do everything in our power to move things along we are often at the mercy of the courts themselves.
Develop a Personalized Strategy and Timeline
You need an attorney who listens to you, takes the information you provide, and turns it into a personalized strategy, doing their best to get you the compensation you deserve. We work with clients in California who have been wronged by their employers or are seeking just compensation after their exit. To book a consultation and get a better idea about how we view your wrongful termination or employment case and how long it may take, contact Brandon Banks Law today.
