“When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Audre Lorde, Poet, Teacher and Activist, 1934-1992
To: Employees and other Workers who are facing injustice at work
We would like to thank you for taking the time to contact us. You are probably here because you have experienced (or may be at risk of experiencing) injustice at work, and we appreciate the fact that you have reached out to Franklin Law in your time of need. Every single one of us – the office administrators, students, employment lawyers, human rights lawyers, labour lawyers, and other employees who work at Franklin Law – sincerely hope that we can help you to get the information, obtain the legal advice, secure the justice, and obtain the closure that you seek.
“Franklin Law Consultations are an involved process”
At Franklin Law, almost everything we do begins with a consultation. We wish that we could consult with every worker, but the truth is that the Franklin Law consultation, and the Franklin Law experience, is not for everyone. Franklin Law is not a volume practice and, as a result, we have to be selective about those with whom we consult. All of us at Franklin Law share a deep commitment to employees and other workers, human rights, collaborative lawyering, and access to justice, and our firm, and our approach to the practice of law, may not be what you need or want in your particular situation.
If you are an employer, we’re flattered (and definitely a little perplexed) that you’re here but you can be sure that you’ll be referred elsewhere. If you are a worker who expects to retain Franklin Law without going through the consultation process, you can also be sure that you’ll be referred elsewhere. Ultimately, we want you to be sure that you’re making an informed decision when you consult with us, and that why it is important that you to take a moment to read, and reflect upon, the following overview of our consultation process and the two types of consultations that we offer to employees and other workers like you.
“Employees and other workers seek Franklin Law’s support, advice, and representation for a number of reasons”
Non-unionized employees, unionized employees, and other workers seek out Franklin Law’s support, advice, and representation for a number of reasons. Some employees suspect that they have been exploited or wronged but are unsure. Your employer may have changed a term of your employment contract without your consent and you may not know how legally significant the change is – you don’t know whether or not you have been constructively dismissed.
Other workers know that they have been wronged but are unsure whether or not they want to take, or can take, legal action. You might be a unionized employee who has repeatedly been told that it would be a waste of time to see a lawyer outside of the Union because outside lawyers can’t help you. You’ve seen decisions where unionized employees have been successfully represented by Franklin Law, like this decision against a school board, and believe that the answer is not that simple. You want to explore whether or not a lawyer from outside of your Union can be of assistance in your particular case.
Other employees sincerely want to hold their employer or Union accountable but are too afraid to do so on their own. You may want to speak truth to power but also know that employers have more resources than you, and the playing field is stacked against you. You recognize your own agency and want to take action, but you need a little help. You want legal advice or representation from an experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate employment lawyer, labour lawyer, or human rights lawyer that you can trust – a lawyer who understands your fears and concerns, embraces them, and changes them from liabilities into assets.
“Franklin Law Consultations are about six things”
Most workers who reach out to Franklin Law, retain us from the very beginning. Other employees turn to Franklin Law for advice and representation after demand letters written by other advocates go unanswered by employers or prove ineffective. Many workers come to us through referrals from other law firms and legal clinics. Other employees turn to us when other advocates tell them that their case is too complex or give up on their case because results are not forthcoming as quickly as they would like. Regardless of why employees come to us, a Franklin Law Consultation is really about five things:
FIRST
A Franklin Consultation is about making a commitment to yourself. It is about affirming that your concerns are real and important, taking concrete action to address your concerns, and affirming your agency to change your circumstances – even if your employer and/or Union say otherwise or your situation seems hopeless.
SECOND
A Franklin Law consultation provides with you a safe space to discuss your situation. It is about providing you with a safe, accessible, judgment-free, and cost-effective space to communicate your goals, and acknowledge, express, and own your fears, anger, and other emotions.
THIRD
A Franklin Law consultation is about practical legal advice. It is about helping you to get timely and objective legal advice, and practical options, to address the injustices that you face at work.
FOURTH
A Franklin Law consultation is about embracing your own agency and taking your first step. It is about helping you to take the first step in the daunting yet empowering process of fighting injustice at work and speaking truth to power in the most informed way possible. It is about taking the first of many steps on your journey, and moving forward well informed and with confidence.
FIFTH
A Franklin Law consultation is about bringing certainty to a daunting and uncertain situation. We aim to provide you with frank and trustworthy advice about your legal options so that when you finish the consultation, you can leave much more informed than you were when you started, and make decisions about how you would like to proceed with a greater degree of confidence. Sometimes proceeding with confidence, means pursuing legal redress on your own or with Franklin Law’s support. Sometimes proceeding with confidence, may mean that, because our legal system is ill-equipped to address your concerns, pursuing legal redress may exacerbate rather than resolve your concerns. Simply put we do to guarantee that if you consult with us, we will be in a position to represent you.
SIXTH
A Franklin Law consultation is about understanding that getting feedback that you need is not always the same as getting feedback that you want. We frequently see employees and other workers who have been promised the world by other legal professionals only to find out that they have spent thousands of dollars pursuing an application or a claim that was unlikely to be successful from the very beginning. We frequently see employees who are further revictimized when the legal system fails them. We frequently see employees who tell us that they wish that others had told them about the risks and benefits of pursuing legal action. We do not shy away from taking on challenging cases. But that does mean that we take cases on simply because an employee is willing to pay us or wants to advance a frivolous claim. That does not mean that we refrain from telling employees and other workers the truth when it may be uncomfortable for all involved to do so. We aim to let employees and other workers know about the benefits of, and the challenges that they may face in, pursuing legal redress during our consultation process so that they can make informed decisions. From the perspective of protecting workers’ interests and preserving their sense of dignity and self-esteem, being the bearer of bad news early on during an initial consultation can be just as valuable as telling an employee that their case is as strong as they had hoped and working with them in earnest to fight injustice at work. If you consult with Franklin Law, it is very important that you understand that the value of our consultation process is not limited to providing employees with answers that they may want.
“Expect to pay for a consultation, and expect significant value in return”
Franklin Law aims to provide to employees and other workers with significant value during our consultations, and, as a result, our consultation process is a very involved process. Our consultations are not designed to provide employees with answers about their case after spending five minutes with us on the phone, and, except in cases where accommodation is necessary, we are reluctant to consult with clients who are unwilling to take the time to meet with us, and discuss their experience in detail from start to finish.
Simply put, we cannot decide to represent employees, or tell employees whether or not we believe that they have a strong or challenging case from a legal perspective, before we consult with them. And every employee who consults with us should understand that sometimes the most valuable advice that we can provide to an employee is advice that we dislike giving the most – sobering advice about why the legal system is likely ill-suited to addressing that employee’s particular concern. Because of our approach to consultations, and because we too are workers that need to be paid for our effort and time, please expect all of our consultations to be paid consultations, except where we have explicitly indicated otherwise, for example, as part of a promotion.
Although we are selective about the employees and other workers who we work with, access to justice is incredibly important to Franklin Law and remains a cornerstone of our firm. And because we want to make our services accessible to as many workers as we can, we offer two types of consultations at incredibly reasonable flat rates – consultations through Franklin Law’s Traditional Consultation and through Franklin Law’s Consultation Clinic.
“Franklin Law’s Traditional Consultation delivers practical and cost-effective legal advice in time sensitive situations”
Franklin Law’s Traditional Consultation is our most popular consultation option. Most non-Unionized and Unionized employee request this service. It too was designed to promote access to justice, but also can be used to secure practical legal advice in time-sensitive situations. You meet with a senior lawyer at Franklin Law, obtain legal advice, and obtain an overview of the legal and practical options that are available to you – and all of this typically occurs on the same day as your consultation. For a Traditional Consultation with a senior lawyer at Franklin Law, we charge a flat fee of $500.00 for a consultation lasting 1.5 hours or less. In complex cases, it may take additional time and cost a bit more for us to provide you with legal advice.
“Franklin Law’s Consultation Clinic reflects our commitment to access to justice. It offers a lower cost alternative to employees and other workers who earn low wages and are in precarious employment”
Franklin Law’s Consultation Clinic was designed to promote access to justice by offering a lower cost alternative to Franklin Law’s Traditional Consultation. It is based on a model of legal advice and support similar to that offered in legal clinics run by law schools. During the Consultation Clinic, you will meet with a lawyer who will listen to you, go over your case with you, and then get back to you with legal advice, and an overview of legal and practical options that may be available to you.
They will do so within two to three business days of the initial meeting. For example, if you consult with a lawyer on Monday, you can expect to receive legal advice by Thursday, and, if you consult with a lawyer on Thursday, you can expect to receive legal advice by the following Tuesday at the very latest. During the Consultation Clinic, we charge a flat fee of $320.00 inclusive of HST for a consultation lasting 1.5 hours or less (i.e., $320.00 in total), which is $180.00 less than the flat fee for our Traditional Consultation. In very complex cases, it may take additional time and cost a bit more for us to provide you with legal advice.
“Our Office Administrators are your point of first contact to arrange a Franklin Law Consultation”
In order to begin the process of requesting and booking either type of consultation with one of Franklin Law’s employment lawyers, wrongful dismissal lawyers, severance package lawyers, human rights lawyers, or labour lawyers, you’ll need to provide us with some details about your situation – all of which will help our Office Administrators, Hani Abdul Aziz and Marie Sotto, to acquire a better understanding of whether or not we may be able to help you. In the alternative, you can call our office at (416) 572-8525, or contact us by email at consultation@franklinlaw.ca.
When you contact us, Hani or Marie will call or email you as soon as possible (typically within 24 hours), and then guide you through the process of booking a consultation at Franklin Law. In doing so, they will take a few minutes to talk to you about what you can expect, and ask you a few questions to determine whether or not there are any issues that might limit our ability to consult with you or represent you. They will not however be in a position to provide you with legal advice, as they are not lawyers. Finally, when you contact Franklin Law through our website or by leaving an e-mail or voice mail message, you are not retaining Franklin Law.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Franklin Law’s approach to consultations and the two types of consultations that we offer. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you in the near future.
Sincerely,
The Franklin Law Team