- Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- - SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
- Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- - SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
Mercer Legal Group reviews and negotiates severance agreements for California employees before they sign away valuable rights. Free, confidential review with a senior attorney.
A severance agreement is the employer’s document, written to protect the employer. Signing it usually means releasing claims you may not know you have. Before you give up that bargaining power, our attorneys focus on what you’re being asked to waive, what California still protects, and whether the offer can be improved.
A severance lawyer can explain what a proposed agreement actually does — what you’re releasing, what you keep, and where there’s room to negotiate. We review and negotiate severance for departing employees, including those who suspect the separation is tied to discrimination, retaliation, or a protected complaint.
A severance agreement is a contract: the employer offers money or benefits, and in exchange you usually release legal claims against the company. California enforces these releases, but with limits. A release can’t waive certain rights — you generally keep the ability to file a charge with a government agency, and recent law restricts how far non-disparagement and confidentiality terms can reach.
Under California’s Silenced No More Act, an agreement can’t stop you from discussing unlawful acts in the workplace, such as harassment or discrimination. Workers 40 and older are entitled to specific review periods before releasing age claims. An attorney can read the agreement, flag what you’re giving up, and tell you whether it’s worth signing as written.
Mercer Legal Group reviews employment law claims carefully, explains available options, and pursues appropriate remedies when the facts and law support them. Every case is different, and no attorney can guarantee a specific result.
A severance review with an attorney can give you:
Every situation is different, and no attorney can guarantee a specific result.
Our California employment attorneys review the agreement, explain your rights under California law, and push back when an employer crosses the line. From the first call, you have a senior attorney reading the agreement — not an intake clerk reading a script. We explain your options and the fee arrangement up front.
Mercer Legal Group focuses on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and whistleblower claims tied to a protected characteristic or protected activity, plus the employment-agreement matters that surround them. We generally do not handle standalone wage-and-hour disputes, unpaid commission claims, Kaiser Permanente matters, public agency claims, or ordinary workplace disputes with no protected legal issue.
If you’re reviewing a severance offer for the first time, the practical questions matter as much as the legal ones. Below are the questions clients ask us most, with the kind of plain-English answers a senior attorney would give you on a first call.
Usually yes. A severance agreement is written by the employer to release the employer, and once you sign, those claims are generally gone. A review tells you what you’re giving up, what it’s worth, and whether the offer can be improved, often before a deadline you can’t easily extend. California employees regularly ask us to look before they sign.
Not in California. The Silenced No More Act bars severance and settlement terms that prevent you from discussing unlawful workplace conduct, including harassment and discrimination. A non-disparagement clause that tries to do that is unenforceable, and you can ask to have it fixed.
Often, yes. Severance is rarely a true take-it-or-leave-it, especially when you have a strong hand, such as a separation that lines up with a protected complaint, or a release the employer clearly wants. Negotiation can reach the payment, benefits continuation, the reference, and the wording of restrictive terms, and that room to negotiate is the same for California workers as anywhere in California.
It depends, but you usually have more time than it feels like. Workers 40 and older are entitled to set review periods before releasing age claims under federal law, and many agreements build in a deadline you can sometimes extend. Don’t let a rushed deadline push you into signing blind.
Several. You generally keep the right to file a charge with a government agency, to discuss unlawful conduct under the Silenced No More Act, and certain non-waivable statutory protections. A release that overreaches on these points can be narrowed or struck, which is one reason a review matters for California employees.
Don’t sign away rights you didn’t know you had. Before you accept a severance offer, contact Mercer Legal Group for a free, confidential review with a senior attorney.
