{"id":206517,"date":"2026-08-26T18:07:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:07:59","slug":"how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/","title":{"rendered":"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A reader writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>How do you respond to employees who threaten to sue or get a lawyer? Would you consider employees\u2019 threats to sue or get a lawyer to be a major red flag?<\/p>\n<p>I realize there are circumstances when the employer is in the wrong and it\u2019s necessary to get a lawyer involved. But as a manager, I\u2019ve had several circumstances where my employees have told me they\u2019ll sue or get a lawyer. Generally I take it seriously and run it past someone more knowledgeable than I. And in all cases, they had no standing. It was an empty threat. But it tells me that someone is eager to sue, or at least threaten to, and isn\u2019t someone I want on my team.<\/p>\n<p>I had one employee, who we had other issues with, who threatened to sue both me and the business (the reasons were unclear). After that, I never had a one-on-one meeting with him without someone else present, as I did not trust him.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The best response to an employee who says they plan to speak to a lawyer is some version of, \u201cI encourage you to do that so you\u2019re fully informed of your rights. For now, though, what we need is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think it\u2019s inherently a red flag that the person is \u201ceager to sue\u201d; most of the time when someone threatens to sue, it\u2019s an expression of frustration \u2014 they feel something unfair is happening, and (particularly because so many people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.askamanager.org\/2013\/10\/yes-its-legal-queries-from-a-combined-13-years-of-blogging-about-the-workplace.html\">don\u2019t have a good understanding of American employment law<\/a>) they feel there must be a legal remedy. It <i>is<\/i> a sign that the relationship has broken down in some way. I\u2019d think of it as closer to a cry for help than anything else; rightly or wrongly, this is an employee who feels they\u2019re being mistreated.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a sign that you need to make sure you\u2019ve listened to their concerns and tried to understand where they\u2019re coming from. You ultimately might not agree with them, but whatever comes next will be easier if you at least listen with empathy and an open mind, and that itself can deescalate things. If you instead move immediately to an adversarial framework \u2014 rather than seeing them as someone expressing frustration \u2014 you miss the chance to do that.<\/p>\n<p>Now, sometimes the person thinks they\u2019re being mistreated for an absurd reason, and it reflects a judgment problem more broadly. But the judgment problem would be about threatening to sue over this specific absurd thing, not about referencing legal counsel in general. (Although it\u2019s also true that if they\u2019re really planning to pursue legal action, they should just do it; threatening is kind of a hothead move and it won\u2019t be particularly useful in most cases.)<\/p>\n<p>Other things to know: an employee asserting their legal rights is engaging in legally protected activity, and you can\u2019t retaliate against them for it. (And lawyers will tell you it can be much easier to prove retaliation than to prove whatever the initial underlying complaint was.) You should continue treating the person the same way you would have before they made the threat. But you should also document the interaction and the issues surrounding it as thoroughly as you can, and you should make sure your HR or legal team is looped in.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A reader writes: How do you respond to employees who threaten to sue or get a lawyer? Would you consider employees\u2019 threats to sue or get a lawyer to be a major red flag? I realize there are circumstances when the employer is in the wrong and it\u2019s necessary to get a lawyer involved. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":190300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30195],"tags":[16525,24351,37723,8303],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-206517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-order","tag-employee","tag-respond","tag-sue","tag-threatens"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue? - Daily Deals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue? - Daily Deals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A reader writes: How do you respond to employees who threaten to sue or get a lawyer? Would you consider employees\u2019 threats to sue or get a lawyer to be a major red flag? I realize there are circumstances when the employer is in the wrong and it\u2019s necessary to get a lawyer involved. But [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Deals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T18:07:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f4ebbe1516e4b21889ae44d0b726878b\"},\"headline\":\"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-26T18:07:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\"},\"wordCount\":581,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png\",\"keywords\":[\"employee\",\"respond\",\"Sue\",\"Threatens\"],\"articleSection\":[\"law + order\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\",\"name\":\"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue? - Daily Deals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-26T18:07:59+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png\",\"width\":480,\"height\":480},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/activity\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Daily Deals\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Daily Deals\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cool-Text-FIVEMOR-489413692393365-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cool-Text-FIVEMOR-489413692393365-1.png\",\"width\":499,\"height\":70,\"caption\":\"Daily Deals\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f4ebbe1516e4b21889ae44d0b726878b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5beebea3fb6286280ad88d578db4df7?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5beebea3fb6286280ad88d578db4df7?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/author\/fivemor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue? - Daily Deals","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue? - Daily Deals","og_description":"A reader writes: How do you respond to employees who threaten to sue or get a lawyer? Would you consider employees\u2019 threats to sue or get a lawyer to be a major red flag? I realize there are circumstances when the employer is in the wrong and it\u2019s necessary to get a lawyer involved. But [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/","og_site_name":"Daily Deals","article_published_time":"2026-08-26T18:07:59+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f4ebbe1516e4b21889ae44d0b726878b"},"headline":"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue?","datePublished":"2026-08-26T18:07:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/"},"wordCount":581,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png","keywords":["employee","respond","Sue","Threatens"],"articleSection":["law + order"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/","name":"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue? - Daily Deals","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png","datePublished":"2026-08-26T18:07:59+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ask-a-Manager-twitter-Card-pass-3.png","width":480,"height":480},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/26\/how-should-i-respond-to-an-employee-who-threatens-to-sue\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/activity\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"how should I respond to an employee who threatens to sue?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Daily Deals","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Daily Deals","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cool-Text-FIVEMOR-489413692393365-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Cool-Text-FIVEMOR-489413692393365-1.png","width":499,"height":70,"caption":"Daily Deals"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f4ebbe1516e4b21889ae44d0b726878b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5beebea3fb6286280ad88d578db4df7?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5beebea3fb6286280ad88d578db4df7?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/blog\/author\/fivemor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206517"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dealstore?post=206517"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/offerexpiration?post=206517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}