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Practice area 3.5 · Employment

Employment

You were handed a package, a pen, and a deadline that feels designed to stop you thinking. Do not sign it yet. What you are owed when a job ends is often more than the first offer, and you have more room than the letter lets on.

1. This page is for you if

A folded letter on a desk beside an oxblood pencil and a green-shaded reading lamp
Plate XThe letter, read properly

2. What the work includes

Severance package review

A written opinion on whether the offer reflects what the law says you are owed, and what a reasonable counter would look like.

Wrongful dismissal claims

If the offer falls far short and they will not move, we advance the claim and keep the pressure on your side of the table.

Employer-side terminations

We help owners end an employment relationship the careful way, so a hard decision does not become an expensive one.

Contracts and workplace policies

Employment agreements, non-competes, and the handbook clauses that need to hold when they are finally tested.

3. Clocks that may apply

Some rights in this area expire on a timetable, whether or not anyone mentions it. For starting a claim, the law calls that time a . These are the clocks we watch on files like yours.

General information about how BC counts these periods, not advice on your facts. Treat the date as the last possible day and act well before it.

Every clock we track, with a date check

4. What it costs

A written severance opinion is $900, a fixed fee, so you know what the advice costs before you ask for it. If a matter grows into a claim, that is billed by time at $295 an hour, and we tell you the moment the numbers stop being worth chasing. You decide with the figures in front of you.

The estimate builder turns these figures into a range for your own file, with our fee, any and the taxes each on a line of their own.

Build your estimateThe full fee schedule, published

5. What happens next

The anxiety is almost never the law. It is not knowing what happens next. So here is what happens next.

  1. 5.1

    Send us the letter, do not sign it

    Email the package the day you get it. A deadline on a severance offer is rarely as firm as it looks, and we would far rather you paused than signed something final in a panic.

  2. 5.2

    We tell you what you are actually owed

    A written opinion within a few days: what the offer contains, what the law suggests is reasonable, and the gap between the two in real dollars.

  3. 5.3

    We open the conversation with your employer

    If a counter is warranted, we make it in a measured letter that keeps the door open. Most of these resolve without anyone filing a thing.

  4. 5.4

    We advance it only if it pays to

    If they will not be reasonable and the gap is worth pursuing, we take the next step, and we tell you honestly when it is not worth your money.

6. Who does the work

Kate Moreau, photographed at the officeKate MoreauAssociate · Called 2019Kate acts for people whose jobs ended badly and for neighbours who cannot agree. She reads severance packages the way other people read menus.

See Kate's diary

We act for the person who lost the job and for the owner who had to end it, which means we know how the other side will read your letter before you send it.

7. What to bring to the first meeting

Whatever you can find is enough to start. If the file needs anything more, we tell you in writing.

If someone is on the other side, bring their names as well. We run a before we hear the details.

8. Reading, before you spend a dollar

9. Questions people actually ask

What does it cost to have my severance looked at?
A written opinion is a flat $900, and for most people that single document pays for itself in a better offer or the calm of knowing the one on the table is fair. You are not signing up for an open-ended bill; the review is a fixed price you agree to before we start.
How long do I really have before I have to sign?
Less than you would like and more than the letter suggests. Employers often set a short deadline to discourage you from getting advice, but the offer usually cannot simply vanish the way it implies. Call us before the date on the page and we will tell you where you actually stand.
Is it worth fighting, or should I just take the offer?
Sometimes the offer is genuinely fair and the right advice is to sign it, and we will say so when that is the case. Other times it falls well short of . The only way to know is a proper review, and knowing turns a stressful guess into a decision you can stand behind.

Begin with a conversation

Fifteen minutes on the phone, no charge, and an honest answer about whether you need a lawyer at all.

Book a consultationor call (250) 555-0184