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- 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.
The Silenced No More Act (Senate Bill 331, or SB 331) bars a non-disparagement or confidentiality term in a severance or settlement agreement that would keep you from discussing unlawful workplace conduct, such as harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. The Act amended Code of Civil Procedure section 1001 and Government Code section 12964.5. A term that tries to silence you on those acts is void, and the agreement has to include set language confirming that you stay free to talk about conduct you have reason to believe is unlawful.
Federal law adds a rule for older workers. Under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, a release of age-discrimination claims by an employee 40 or older has to give you at least 21 days to consider the offer, or 45 days if the layoff affects a group, plus 7 days to revoke after you sign. 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.
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 (Senate Bill 331, or SB 331) bars severance and settlement terms that prevent you from discussing unlawful workplace conduct, such as harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. A non-disparagement clause that tries to do that is void, and the law says the agreement must include language confirming your right to speak about unlawful acts.
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. Under the federal Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, a worker 40 or older must get at least 21 days to consider a release of age claims, or 45 days when the layoff affects a group, plus 7 days to revoke after signing. Many agreements also build in a deadline you can sometimes extend. Don’t let a rushed clock 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.
