What exactly is Employee Misclassification Lawsuit? According to United States federal law, misclassifying employees as independent contractors enables employers to evade paying employment taxes and other fees, including workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance. Many times, these employees receive a small amount of money per month or are otherwise misclassified as contractors by their current or previous employers.

If an employee is offered an employment agreement that states he or she will work as an independent contractor, an employment contract should be signed. If an employee signs such an agreement, but later realizes that he is actually an employee, he has the right to file a Lawsuit against his former or current employer. In other words, if you sign an employment agreement but later realize that you are an employee, you have the right to file a Lawsuit.

Employee Misclassification Lawsuit

The first step to filing a Lawsuit is to determine whether you have a case. Most cases filed with the U.S. Department of Labor involve long-term allegations of wage theft or other employment-related offenses. In order to determine whether you have a valid claim for wage theft, it is necessary to conduct appropriate research. In addition, there are laws in many states that protect against this type of lawsuits.

One state that recently passed a Lawsuit Protection Act is Illinois.

The Lawsuit Protection Act of 2021 requires certain minimum standards to be followed in Illinois labor law cases, including: protecting whistleblowers, providing notice of claims of misclassifications, ensuring that victims of wage theft or other employment-related crimes get proper representation, and protecting against retaliation.

Other Illinois provisions that pertain to employee misclassification lawsuits include preventing companies from using informal methods of determining an employee’s status (such as monitoring hours), and requiring agencies that process claims to perform employment background checks. Although Illinois is a state with some of the strictest labor laws in the country, the new Illinois legislation has been criticized by business groups as an attempt to stifle the type of litigation often used to bring about successful claims.

Illinois claims processing attorneys note that some drivers are mistakenly classed as drivers when they are not, and that the lawsuits can be brought on behalf of all drivers, regardless of whether they are drivers or not.

Many drivers who have been incorrectly classed as drivers find themselves unable to obtain insurance at reasonable rates, and are denied the right to drive on the state’s roads and highways.

Other drivers who are wrongly categorized as drivers are saddled with excessive fees for car insurance that are designed to be exempt from the workers’ compensation clause of the Employer Liability Act.

California has been well known as a state with a strong Workers’ Compensation Law.

One specific provision of the California Workers’ Compensation Act that makes it particularly vulnerable to suit is the term “exempt employee.” As defined, this term means that an employee is not entitled to compensation based upon whether that employee was a designated driver or not. As defined, an “exempt employee” is not entitled to compensation if he or she has driven a vehicle, or goods of any kind, for a period of one year prior to the filing of a claim. However, many drivers file claims based upon periods of time that begin and end at different times. Therefore, it is often necessary to file a separate, independent contractor claim when a driver is misclassified as an employee.

The California Labor Department’s Division of Labor is strongly opposed to the use of misstatements or errors in documentation to deny entitlement to benefits and wages under the law.

In addition, the state’s top labor law regulating agency, the California Employment Development Department, strongly discourages the filing of such frivolous claims.

For these reasons, many drivers who file independent contractor claims will opt to pursue their claim through the California Labor & Employment Department instead of the Department of Insurance or the Department of California’s Department of Motor Vehicles.