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Empowering Employees with Jamie Wright · Justice Team Podcast

• 0:02
  Welcome to this episode of the Justice Team Podcast on the Justice Team
• 0:05
  Network, where we give practical advice to lawyers out there.
• 0:09
  And I'm your host Bob Simon.
• 0:10
  I'm honored to have the Ms.
• 0:12
  Jamie Wright on today.
• 0:13
  How are you, Ms.
• 0:14
  Wright?
• 0:14
  I'm doing incredible sitting next to the one and only extraordinary Bob Simon.
• 0:18
  Well, you had me at extraordinary, what can I say?
• 0:21
  Um, for those of you that don't know Jamie, she is an employee rights
• 0:25
  extraordinaire from the disability cases to the workplace discrimination.
• 0:30
  Has had some eight figure verdicts and has helped a whole lot of people out.
• 0:35
  Thank you.
• 0:36
  First of all, where do people find you?
• 0:37
  Oh, I'm easy to find social media is my like kind of go to.
• 0:41
  So Instagram, Jamie Wright, ESQ, my website is Jamie Wright, ESQ.
• 0:45
  If you Google me, Jamie E.
• 0:47
  Wright, ESQ, it all kind of links to the same
• 0:49
  place.
• 0:49
  And do you practice all over California?
• 0:51
  What's everywhere?
• 0:52
  Literally from like counties you've never heard of that I've only recently
• 0:56
  heard of like Hollister County.
• 0:59
  to San Diego County and everywhere in between.
• 1:01
  Um, so what are some of the areas like your bread and butter,
• 1:04
  the stuff that you'd like to do that you're passionate about?
• 1:07
  Yeah,
• 1:08
  I'm really passionate about disability discrimination cases,
• 1:10
  um, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, race discrimination,
• 1:14
  though they're harder to prove.
• 1:15
  But, um, sometimes in California, you get these, um, employers who.
• 1:20
  act insane, and I call them insane, for calling people the N word,
• 1:23
  telling, um, my Brown brothers to go back to Mexico, you know, harassing
• 1:27
  them and those kinds of things.
• 1:28
  And also some wage and hour cases.
• 1:30
  Yeah, so what is a wage and hour case?
• 1:32
  You're not being paid overtime, uh, you're not getting your meal arrest
• 1:36
  breaks, and sometimes with those, if you make a complaint and you get retaliated
• 1:40
  against or you're fired or your hours are reduced, those are good cases too.
• 1:44
  Wow.
• 1:45
  Yeah, so what's a typical fact pattern for, um, a disability case,
• 1:50
  the stuff that you've been doing very well on and helping folks.
• 1:53
  What are some examples?
• 1:54
  Yeah, so I've gotten a lot of like nurses that are like during the COVID,
• 1:58
  like when the surge was happening, if they had like an illness or they had a
• 2:02
  medical condition and they asked for an accommodation and the employer didn't want
• 2:05
  to accommodate them and they fired them.
• 2:06
  Um, or if someone is like neurodivergent, um, they have like ADHD or anxiety not
• 2:12
  getting an accommodation or if they need a buildout, cause you have back problems.
• 2:17
  I have back problems, um, sometimes and the employer won't build out the chair
• 2:22
  or the desk or something like that.
• 2:24
  And
• 2:24
  you know, do you ever have hybrid cases?
• 2:26
  Cause a lot of our personal injury cases, we have a lot of people that
• 2:30
  aren't being, I think about it, I probably think of a few that.
• 2:33
  You don't have injuries or they're not accommodated with it, work.
• 2:36
  So if you had to talk to us, personal injury lawyers or people out there that
• 2:40
  are representing the injured folks, what are some things that we should be telling
• 2:43
  our clients to do other than just call you and stuff that they have to do to, kind
• 2:48
  of check those boxes with the employer.
• 2:49
  What are some things they need to do if they're being discriminated against?
• 2:52
  Put
• 2:53
  it in writing.
• 2:54
  Put it in writing and cc yourself because you'd be surprised how
• 2:56
  many emails disappear from the employer's, um, email service.
• 3:00
  So cc yourself.
• 3:01
  Cc your personal email.
• 3:02
  Oh
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  yeah, cc your personal email when you're writing these emails if
• 3:05
  you're doing it from the employer.
• 3:06
  Or bcc
• 3:07
  so they don't know.
• 3:08
  Or bcc.
• 3:09
  That's a, that's a key tip.
• 3:10
  Um, and then you can always make a complaint, um, besides their HR department
• 3:14
  to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing if you think it's happening.
• 3:17
  And you're not quite yet ready to talk to a lawyer.
• 3:20
  Yeah, so what are the steps somebody has to go through in order to even
• 3:24
  file, uh, disability discrimination?
• 3:27
  Is there an administrative process?
• 3:29
  Yeah, what's that like?
• 3:30
  The, um, California Civil Rights Division, which used to be called the
• 3:33
  Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
• 3:34
  So you have to make a complaint to them first, you gotta get a right to sue.
• 3:37
  Some people want to go to EEOC do not go to EEOC in my opinion
• 3:40
  You have a shorter window of time to file your lawsuit 90 days.
• 3:43
  What's the new the new thing called
• 3:45
  California Civil Rights Division?
• 3:47
  You know what?
• 3:47
  That's much better than the one before because every time people would tell me is
• 3:50
  like what does that have to do with like?
• 3:52
  work
• 3:54
  It was just trailing the law because the law is called the Fair Employment
• 3:58
  Housing Act So Department of Fair Employment Housing, but California
• 4:01
  Civil Rights is definitely a better
• 4:03
  So they have to file and do they Do they have an attorney?
• 4:06
  Do they hire you to do that or do they do it on their own?
• 4:09
  They can do it themselves.
• 4:10
  I have some clients that do it themselves and sometimes they ask the department to
• 4:13
  do an investigation and then, you know, sometimes the department offers mediation
• 4:17
  or you can have your lawyer do it.
• 4:18
  I prefer to do it.
• 4:20
  Yeah, so those are kind of what are some other examples for people that are
• 4:24
  listening or watching if they or a loved one or if they have a client that's being
• 4:28
  discriminated against, what are some of the common ways you do other than we
• 4:31
  talked about the neurodivergent And, uh, the nurses that you've been representing.
• 4:35
  Oh, yeah.
• 4:35
  So, um, if someone can't drive a long distance, like I had one lady who, um,
• 4:40
  fell at her house and she couldn't drive a long distance, um, someone who has
• 4:44
  a vision problem, a hearing problem, I do have a guy who had hearing loss,
• 4:48
  um, I had one lady who was losing hair from her scalp, um, due to stress.
• 4:53
  So there's a whole broad range of them.
• 4:56
  And I assume that, um, What's the intake like for you?
• 4:59
  Because I would assume you get a
• 5:00
  lot of calls.
• 5:01
  I do.
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  I have an intake person now.
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  One of my paralegals.
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  They typically, like, click on the thing on my website.
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  There's like a button and they send us a message and I forward
• 5:11
  them to my intake person.
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  He has a really detailed questionnaire he goes through.
• 5:15
  Um, wanting all the background.
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  He goes through a timeline, so he creates the initial timeline.
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  I look at it.
• 5:21
  I say, okay, call them back and ask some additional questions.
• 5:23
  Or I just get on zoom and I talk to them.
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  If they are not prepared to come to me, always catch
• 5:27
  me one way.
• 5:28
  I mean, you have to sift through a lot of referrals cause I mean, how, how many
• 5:31
  do you think calls you get per week or actual cases that you end up taking?
• 5:37
  I probably get 15 to 20 hits to my website plus calls.
• 5:40
  Wow.
• 5:41
  Um,
• 5:44
  probably one to two cause it's just, I can't, okay.
• 5:48
  help everybody at once.
• 5:49
  And the other thing is I oftentimes don't take cases from other lawyers.
• 5:53
  Like if they've had another lawyer for an extended period of time
• 5:55
  and they want to send it to me.
• 5:57
  It just gets a little tricky,
• 5:58
  but you could refer it a lot of work.
• 6:00
  Yeah, I do.
• 6:01
  I do refer you cases Yeah, and I take I take them if it's referred out
• 6:04
  right, but like say you had litigated the file for six months I may not
• 6:08
  Well, I wouldn't touch a file that Disrespect be all you like in these cases.
• 6:12
  I think that's the beauty of you know, what you do with mentorship Yeah.
• 6:17
  With Justice HQ and stuff like that.
• 6:19
  As people know you as the go to for these types of cases and questions.
• 6:21
  And I
• 6:21
  appreciate that.
• 6:22
  Justice HQ has been incredible just as a, like a resource and just as a network of
• 6:26
  friends and like creating like a family.
• 6:28
  And that's awesome when you feel like you're alone.
• 6:30
  Are you
• 6:30
  a true, I mean, you're the only
• 6:32
  attorney at your firm.
• 6:33
  Yeah.
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  I'm the only one.
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  And then I co counsel a lot now.
• 6:35
  Yeah.
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  I think you have to.
• 6:36
  I mean, we still, I still co counsel a lot.
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  Cause.
• 6:39
  I mean, your client deserves it, one, and two, it just makes it more fun and easier.
• 6:42
  It does.
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  It does.
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  Because sometimes when you're under the gun and you're dealing with a
• 6:46
  justice system that is not so blind.
• 6:48
  You have to have that support.
• 6:50
  Yeah, so tell us about the other types of, um, the cases.
• 6:52
  We got the disability discriminations, what that you do,
• 6:56
  and the workplace discrimination.
• 6:57
  Yeah.
• 6:57
  So what's the workplace discrimination bucket look like?
• 7:00
  What types of cases?
• 7:00
  Sex
• 7:01
  harassment, hostile work environment based on gender, um, cases where a
• 7:04
  supervisor is making a pass, quid pro quo, um, or just like sexual comments.
• 7:10
  Images in the workplace, um, text messages that are inappropriate,
• 7:14
  sending porn in a text message.
• 7:16
  I mean, social media is crazy with what it's done in terms of everything is
• 7:21
  safe to everything's out there.
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  Literally, you can't get away from it.
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  Like if you're going to send a message on Instagram, I could
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  imagine you see some good stuff like people, their DMS, even
• 7:29
  Snapchats, all this crazy stuff.
• 7:30
  DMS
• 7:31
  are wild.
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  Why would you ever as a supervisor DM the employee at one o'clock in the
• 7:35
  morning and saying what you're doing?
• 7:36
  Oh man.
• 7:38
  Really?
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  People do these things?
• 7:40
  Yeah, and they proceed to send, um, your private parts.
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  And it's always the guys.
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  Always the guys.
• 7:47
  Man.
• 7:47
  Always the guys.
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  Although I, I, no discrimination.
• 7:52
  It just tends to be the biggest percentage of the sex harassment case.
• 7:57
  I mean, and it's so like, it's so much more prominent where the other
• 8:01
  people, well, it's probably not.
• 8:02
  It's probably always been there, it's just people are talking
• 8:05
  about it now more, right?
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  They're more
• 8:06
  comfortable, yeah.
• 8:08
  And sometimes they're not, and I've had some that have come
• 8:10
  to me and they've been scared.
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  Like, you know, especially if they're still employed.
• 8:13
  Like, I'm gonna be retaliated against, I may lose my job, they're gonna harass me.
• 8:16
  I have one who's still employed, and they did just that.
• 8:18
  They've been harassing her, you know.
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  Suspensions,
• 8:22
  random drug tests.
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  But so what, so what happens in this situation where it's like a forced
• 8:27
  termination or a constructive one where they're keeping their making so hostile
• 8:31
  that like They're making you leave.
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  Like, what advice do you give your clients there knowing that they're not going to be
• 8:37
  able to make rent if they leave the job?
• 8:41
  Yeah, that's the hard part.
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  I mean, often times you can go file unemployment, right?
• 8:45
  Um, I've seen some employers be kind of like awful and challenge
• 8:49
  that, but I always tell them unless it's gross misconduct, you're still
• 8:52
  entitled to it, the unemployment.
• 8:54
  And then, you know, there's disability, there's options.
• 8:56
  Yeah,
• 8:58
  so you do a lot of those types of cases.
• 9:01
  What are the ones you are passionate about these days in the world of Jamie Wright?
• 9:05
  The sex harassment cases, the disability.
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  I'm passionate about all my clients.
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  I don't really discriminate as long as they're honest with me and um,
• 9:12
  up front about all the bad facts.
• 9:14
  And are you um, You'd have to with these about have been taking calls that you get.
• 9:18
  I mean, do you have a system?
• 9:19
  Everything goes into like your backend systems gal.
• 9:22
  We've talked about this.
• 9:22
  So why don't you tell our viewers and listeners about it?
• 9:25
  I have my case of which allows the clients to get updates, which is
• 9:30
  great because they're not feeling like they're not being communicated with.
• 9:33
  Cause they can always log in.
• 9:34
  I mean, of course my staff's available to ask their questions.
• 9:36
  You can log in yourself and you get a text message that tells
• 9:39
  you upcoming Unfortunately, I get a lot of questions about that.
• 9:42
  Why do I have to appear?
• 9:43
  I'm like, no, you don't have to appear for the CMC.
• 9:45
  You're just getting it for information purposes.
• 9:47
  But the system we have is great and we love it.
• 9:49
  Yes.
• 9:50
  And we, we integrated a process service as well.
• 9:54
  So we pay for everything at once.
• 9:55
  Oh, I love it.
• 9:56
  Yeah.
• 9:56
  Well, it's a good thing whenever you have a case management software
• 9:58
  that integrates with all your stuff.
• 9:59
  So it just makes it easier.
• 10:01
  Yeah.
• 10:01
  We're actually building out the integration with my case and case peer.
• 10:04
  Are you an attorney?
• 10:05
  Sure.
• 10:05
  Yeah.
• 10:05
  God.
• 10:06
  So it'll be one click off.
• 10:07
  The other one know Cleo does it now.
• 10:08
  File File Vine Lead Docket.
• 10:09
  Great.
• 10:10
  I think Solidify does all Salesforce and Oh, good.
• 10:13
  My case and Case.
• 10:14
  Case bureau.
• 10:14
  So people can just send you a lot more cases.
• 10:16
  Yes.
• 10:16
  Sometimes
• 10:17
  where we can sift through them
• 10:19
  Yeah.
• 10:19
  You just get these attorney share pings all the day, but then you
• 10:21
  have to have your network of people to refer to underneath you.
• 10:24
  Yeah.
• 10:24
  Yeah.
• 10:24
  Well, I'm happy to, I mean, if I get, like, if I get a really great
• 10:27
  brain injury case, I'm like Bob side.
• 10:30
  Yeah, I'll take it.
• 10:30
  It's fine with me.
• 10:32
  Yeah, so what other, so as we'll switch over to you as a human being
• 10:36
  and the stuff that you're doing, you know, being a true solo, you know,
• 10:39
  I'm sure there's, I mean, being a solo when I started too, it's hard, right?
• 10:43
  So what are some things that you are doing or advice that you can give
• 10:47
  people out there that are young lawyers that may need help or mentorship?
• 10:52
  You know, having a village is really important.
• 10:55
  And when I mean a village family and friends that are honest with you,
• 10:59
  sincere, and they care about you.
• 11:00
  I was opposing MSJ and also taking up a writ on one of the judges this week.
• 11:05
  And one of my friends in my village was also a lawyer
• 11:07
  said, can I bring you dinner?
• 11:08
  And I didn't even ask.
• 11:09
  And I thought that was really sweet.
• 11:10
  I didn't need it because my mama lives close by.
• 11:11
  So I just got the dinner from her, but just having a village of people
• 11:15
  that love you and can support you.
• 11:17
  And, you know, if you have a family, because you have a
• 11:18
  family and I have a small kid.
• 11:21
  having that childcare and like the village that can help you with that.
• 11:24
  So the village is important.
• 11:25
  And then like taking care of your mental and physical health is really
• 11:29
  important because who cares if you got all the money and you're unhealthy.
• 11:33
  Yeah.
• 11:33
  And a lot of people end up with toxic behavior, but the reason they
• 11:36
  do is usually because their circles are also doing toxic behavior.
• 11:39
  Yeah.
• 11:39
  And I don't, I don't stand for that in my circle.
• 11:42
  I keep out as much toxicity
• 11:44
  as possible.
• 11:44
  I agree 100 percent with I'm actually getting texts from my wife right now
• 11:47
  because our, one of our children.
• 11:50
  Got in trouble at school today because she was, she lied for a friend who tried to
• 11:53
  bring something inappropriate into school.
• 11:54
  No, yours did too.
• 11:55
  Mine was hitting somebody at the school, so that's why.
• 11:57
  Just day two.
• 11:58
  My wife, she's like day two, like day two of school today.
• 12:01
  Mine was hitting somebody and he was practicing his karate moves.
• 12:04
  That was the explanation he gave me in the car.
• 12:05
  So there's, there's six.
• 12:07
  He's four.
• 12:08
  He's
• 12:08
  big.
• 12:09
  Yeah.
• 12:09
  He's a big kid.
• 12:10
  You know, we're not the littlest people in the world.
• 12:12
  Me or the dad.
• 12:13
  So I'm like, it's not like we're tiny, but he was hitting.
• 12:16
  So
• 12:16
  yeah, that's all right.
• 12:18
  And I remember the first time I actually personally met you was at
• 12:20
  Lottie girl a couple of years ago.
• 12:22
  And the first thing you said, you know, it was, you were looking for
• 12:24
  mentorship and I said, well, let me put you in a circle of, of women.
• 12:27
  Yeah.
• 12:27
  And I was like, well, here's people that are great employment lawyers that I know.
• 12:31
  And, you know,
• 12:31
  And the huge verdict I was on was because of that.
• 12:33
  Oh yeah, that's
• 12:33
  right.
• 12:34
  But this is what the best thing about this is, like, within
• 12:38
  seconds, they're responding.
• 12:39
  Like, these are the busiest female trial lawyers in the space, and
• 12:43
  they respond right away, and then, then it was off from there.
• 12:45
  You know, you met a lot of people.
• 12:47
  Yes.
• 12:47
  And that's, I think it's important.
• 12:48
  People just don't realize that how open to help everybody is.
• 12:52
  That are good people, right?
• 12:53
  So.
• 12:53
  Literally.
• 12:54
  And you didn't have to do that.
• 12:55
  And, you know, most people might even be shy, but I was like,
• 12:58
  I think that's Bob Simon.
• 12:59
  I'm gonna go roll up on him and have this conversation.
• 13:03
  Oh man.
• 13:04
  I remember we were coming out of the um, that was at La Costa.
• 13:07
  Yeah.
• 13:08
  The Omni La Costa.
• 13:09
  Those rooms were so hard to find.
• 13:11
  Yeah they were.
• 13:12
  And
• 13:12
  like your very pregnant wife who was so cute with her belly out.
• 13:15
  I was like oh my god she's so cute.
• 13:16
  She had hot pink belly out.
• 13:17
  We gotta find
• 13:18
  that photo for this episode because it was epic.
• 13:20
  I try to hide most of my pregnancy photos because I was 55 before.
• 13:24
  pounds over my weight now.
• 13:25
  I was like, I still don't know where that weight went.
• 13:27
  I was like BJ, this is why you so big.
• 13:28
  Oh yeah, it's 55 pounds.
• 13:29
  I was 135.
• 13:30
  I was 185 at the end of my pregnancy.
• 13:33
  God bless you.
• 13:35
  I can,
• 13:36
  I can never do that tolerance.
• 13:38
  And if anybody discriminates somebody against somebody cause they're pregnant
• 13:40
  or tries to terminate, you know, to call, you know, to talk to Ms.
• 13:43
  Jamie, right?
• 13:44
  Well, Jamie, I want to thank you for coming on this episode of the justice
• 13:47
  team podcast on the justice team network.
• 13:49
  They can ping the show.
• 13:50
  They want to get ahold of us or questions.
• 13:52
  Um, Jamie, right?
• 13:54
  Law or S E S Q.
• 13:55
  Is that
• 13:56
  your name?
• 13:57
  Jamie,
• 13:57
  J A M I E W R I G H T E S Q.
• 14:03
  is the Instagram handle, and you can slide into her DMs.
• 14:05
  Please, no dick pics.
• 14:08
  No dick pics.
• 14:09
  Nope.
• 14:09
  Not at 2am, either.
• 14:12
  Especially if you're not working with her.
• 14:14
  One of these creeps.
• 14:15
  Creeps and croops.
• 14:16
  Well, thank you for coming on.
• 14:17
  This was nice.
• 14:18
  I
• 14:18
  appreciate
• 14:18
  it.