COVID-19 Legal Claims: Document Those Claims like a Legal Expert

We know that the stigma and health information sharing related to COVID-19 is just starting to generate massive claims and lawsuits as related to discrimination and retaliation. Lawsuits related to COVID-19 are expected to snowball exponentially as the courts and government agencies return to operation. So, how can employers start to prepare now for the deluge of claims anticipated in the near future? By preparing documentation just as a lawyer would. It is all too easy to forget to document reasons for furlough or disciplinary issues while in the midst of a pandemic, but those omissions will come back to haunt employers once the lawsuits are filed. What employers interpret as "for the good of the organization" is going to fly directly in the face of employees who feel they were singled out, were "accused" of COVID-19, were placed on FMLA or the Families First Act, or were ousted from employment.

The COVID laws:
1.       Families First Act
2.       ADA
 
The Four techniques:
 
1.       POWERPOINT method for improving your speaking skills
2.       FUNNEL method for improving your questioning skills
CIRAS method for improving your writing skills

Employers need to be prepared to defend themselves against these claims. The best way to defend yourself is not just simple as “documenting," but documenting like a lawyer to maximize efficiency, efficacy, and success.  This program will teach you how to analyze situations quickly, how to document events the right way, how to draft documents like a lawyer, and how to avoid the pitfalls that most employers fall into that cause them to lose. By learning four easy methods, you will improve every communication you make and every document you create. These four techniques, the POWERPOINT method, the FUNNEL method, the NATO’S DC method and the CIRAS method will enable you to become a better speaker, a more adept investigator, a more efficient and effective note taker, and an excellent and persuasive writer.

• HR Directors
• Administrative Directors
• Chief Security Officers
• Chief Information Officers
• HR management
• CFOs
• HR Generalists
• C-suite
• Managers
• CEOs
• Senior HR Professionals
• HR Analysts
• Employee Relations Professionals
• Employment Managers/Specialists

Deirdre Kamber Todd, Esq., is a partner with The Kamber Law Group, P.C., a next-generation law firm located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. With fifteen years of experience, Deirdre focuses her practice on labor and employment law, social media and technology law, HIPAA, and business law. Specific areas of her employment law practice include discrimination, wage and hour, restrictive covenants, business contracts, unemployment compensation, LGBT issues, labor disputes, FMLA, military leave, social media litigation, information privacy and technology, agency compliance, and medical record privacy.  

Her clients include companies, non-profits, governmental entities, and individuals. Her work includes consultative and legal services, from outsourced HR and social media services to hearings, litigation, and appellate work. She also regularly provides training and education for companies and individuals. She is licensed to practice in New York, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Supreme Court, and she also has been admitted as an expert witness in social media and networking. 

Deirdre is the recipient of a number of awards and recognitions: she was selected as one of the “Top 20 Under 40” by the Pennsylvania Business Journal, she received the Ethics Award from the New York State Bar Association, she received a grant from the Public Justice Foundation for her pro bono work on HIV/AIDS, and she was recently nominated as one of the top twenty-five women of influence in the Lehigh Valley. 

Aside from the practice of law, she serves as the President and Diversity Chair for Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Lehigh Valley. She currently teaches as an adjunct professor at DeSales University in the MBA Program in both the HR and Healthcare Concentrations. She has earned her Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law, a distinguished master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Limerick, in Limerick, Ireland, and a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University.