You claim against your employer: the law makes them pay the attorney fees

It is the law deciding who pays the attorney in a labor suit. Its policy declaration is explicit: the Legislature declares that allowing attorney fees to be charged to workers who must claim against their employers is equivalent to allowing the value of their work to be reduced by the amount they pay their lawyers; and it declares that the policy of the Government of Puerto Rico is to protect workers against such reductions in the value of their work. The law also regulates labor organizations’ contracts with their attorneys: it declares null those agreed on a percentage of any benefit obtained through collective bargaining, because that "works to the detriment of industrial peace, by giving a private interest a seat at the negotiating table".

Workers or employees claiming any right or sum of money against their employer before the courts of Puerto Rico, under federal or local labor legislation or an individual or collective employment agreement. The definition of employer includes the Government’s Public Authorities and Corporations and their representatives, so the protection also reaches someone claiming against a public corporation.

• That you be a worker or employee claiming against your employer a right or sum of money under labor legislation or an individual or collective agreement.Verified against the official source
• That the claim be granted in whole or in part: that is the condition for the employer to be ordered to pay fees.Verified against the official source
• That your attorney not be one of the Department of Labor and Human Resources’ attorneys, in which case the fee award does not lie.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Know the rule before deciding whether to claim

   In every case filed by a worker against their employer in which the claim is granted in whole or in part, the employer shall be ordered to pay attorney fees. Note "in whole or in part": you do not have to win everything claimed for the fee award to lie. The only caveat the text sets is that the worker’s attorney not be one of the Department of Labor and Human Resources’ attorneys.

2. 2

   Step 2: Losing does not order you to pay the employer’s fees

   This is the half that removes the fear of claiming: when judgment is entered for the respondent employer, the complaining worker or employee shall not be ordered to pay attorney fees. The law builds the asymmetry on purpose, and its policy declaration explains why.

3. 3

   Step 3: Do not sign an agreement binding you to pay your own attorney

   All contracts, agreements or arrangements in which workers or employees bind themselves directly or indirectly to pay fees to their attorneys in judicial or extrajudicial claims against their employers shall be null and contrary to public policy, under Puerto Rico’s labor legislation, that of the United States Congress applicable to Puerto Rico, or under an individual or collective agreement. Null means it does not hold, whether you signed it or not.

4. 4

   Step 4: If you already paid the attorney, you can recover double

   Every attorney who receives compensation from a worker, or group of workers, in violation of this Act’s provisions must refund to the affected worker or workers the amount paid, plus an equal sum of money as liquidated damages. And you do not have to fight that alone: the Secretary of Labor is authorized to appear, on the workers’ behalf, in the actions to enforce those sums.

5. 5

   Step 5: If you settle out of court, fees are still resolved

   The law anticipated out-of-court settlement: where the claim is satisfied extrajudicially, the parties, in addition to complying with the law on settlements, must — if they do not agree on the fees to be paid by the respondent employer to the complaining worker’s attorney — submit that determination to the court that would have had jurisdiction over the case. And it adds that the costs of those proceedings shall be borne officially.

The labor suit is heard before the courts of Puerto Rico, and that is where the fee award against the employer is entered. The Department of Labor and Human Resources comes in two ways: its own attorneys may represent the worker — in which case the fee award does not lie — and the Secretary of Labor is authorized to appear on workers’ behalf in the actions to recover what an attorney charged in violation of this law.

• Not claiming for fear of fees: if you lose, the law says you shall not be ordered to pay attorney fees.
• Signing an agreement with an attorney to pay them yourself: those contracts are null and contrary to public policy in claims against your employer.
• Paying and staying quiet: if you already paid in violation of the law, the attorney must refund that amount plus an equal sum as liquidated damages.
• Believing you must win everything: the award against the employer lies when the claim is granted in whole or in part.
• Thinking it does not apply against the government: the definition of employer includes Public Authorities and Corporations and their representatives.
• Forgetting out-of-court settlement: if there is no agreement on fees, the determination is submitted to the court that would have had jurisdiction.
• Not knowing the exception: if a Department of Labor attorney represents you, the fee award does not lie.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos (DTRH)

  Departamento del Trabajo

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov