Breach Of Employment Contract Lawyer

Our employment lawyers can help you if you believe your employer violated an employment contract they had with you. Contact our employee contracts lawyers at 1-877-525-0700.

Employment Contract Broken

1. Written contracts for all or part of the employment relationship
2. Oral contracts governing the employment relationship
3. Implied Contracts governing the employment relationship

Massachusetts is an at-will employment state. This means employment relationships can be terminated at any time for any reason as long as the reason for the employment termination is not illegal, or does not contradict a contract between the employee and employer.

How Good Is My Written Employment Contract?

Only an experienced Massachusetts employee contract lawyer can advise you whether what you believe is a written contract for employment is an enforceable employment contract, or some part of the employment relationship such as bonuses, commissions, or stock options. Offer letters, documents provided during employment, and e-mails from persons without authority are not necessarily employment contracts.

In analyzing employee contracts, Karl Gerber examines all issues involving written employment contracts including the actual meaning and enforceability of the potential employment contract. Specific terms in written employment contracts often render the employee without a decent legal remedy if the employer breaches the contract. For example, many employment contracts contain liquidated damage clauses. These clauses may limit damages to 30 days of pay, 90 days of pay, or an amount less than the remaining duration of the contract in the event of a breach of contract. Liquidated damage clauses may also specify the contract can be terminated by the employee at any time for any reason which begs the question what the purpose of the contract is.

Can I sue for breach of an Employment Contract?

Only an experienced Massachusetts employment lawyer can evaluate whether an employee may be able to enforce an oral or implied contract against their employer. While the Massachusetts courts have held statements and/or policies contained in an employee handbook may create an implied contract, O’Brien v. New England Telegraph & Telephone Co., 664 N.E.2d 843 (Mass. 1996), substantial legal questions arise if statements in the employee manual contradict other written documents between the employee and employer. Typically employees sign documents when they receive an employee handbook. If the signed document recants that the employment relationship is at will and the employee manual cannot create a contract of employment you should consult with an experienced Massachusetts employee contract lawyer. Of breach of employment contract attorney can be reached at 1-877-525-0700 until 9:30 P.M. during the week.

Oral Employment Contract

Karl Gerber, labor lawyer, has sued for breach of oral contracts. Oral contracts need to be definite such as promising a definite rate of pay, start date, or promise about how long the employee will be employed. In general, employment contracts are not enforceable if they are so indefinite the court does not know what it is supposed to enforce.

While many posts on the internet about oral employment contracts seem to center around comments made during interviews we are not sure that is the best factual scenario for an oral contract for conditions of employment. At the time of job interviews the employment relationship has not yet started. Only if there was a mutual understanding about the formation of a contract term during a job interview can the employee assert as an oral term of the employment relationship was formed orally during the interview process. We are much more likely to, and have, filed cases of employment fraud based upon comments made during the interview process the employer had no reasonable basis for making and/or knew the falsity of the statement at the time it was made.

We are more than happy to review a situation of breach of oral employment contract. Contact our law firm at 1-877-525-0700 for a private consultation concerning potential broken oral employment contracts.

Overall, the law of employee contract interpretation is governed by case law. An analysis of whether an employee can sue their employer due to a contract involves a factual interpretation of the specific contract terms allegedly breached compared to the rest of the contract terms. Legally, certain things work and certain things do not work in contract law. Although we have started many breach of employment contract cases without all of the contracts, written documents, or e-mails that are supposed to form the employment contract we recommend that employees asking for a legal consultation on a broken employment contract get together the documents they have so a qualified employee contracts lawyer can review what is in writing.

Karl Gerber, representing employees in Adams, Athol, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsa, Chicopee, Erving, Everett, Fall River, Fitchburg, Gosnold, Hollyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Monterey, New Bedford, Newton, Lynn, Orange, Rowe, Southbridge, Springfield, Worcester and the rest of Massachusetts.

Call 1-877-525-0700 to speak to a labor lawyer about whether your employment contract was unlawfully terminated, or otherwise breached. You may be entitled to unpaid wages or other employment benefits under an employment contract.