Speaker 1: One simple thing you can do to potentially make your wrongful termination case much stronger is to call as many of your former co-workers as possible and ask them a very simple question. Hey, have you heard anything from the management about my termination? You don't care what they think, what they believe, or what they assume about your termination because beliefs and assumptions are not evidence. You want to know if they heard any statements or if they have or if they have seen any documents, writings, text messages or anything else in writing that suggests that you in fact were terminated for illegal, discriminatory or retaliatory reasons. It's possible that some or even all of your former co-workers would not want to talk to you. They're afraid of retaliation because they're still employed with the same employer, maybe they just don't want to be involved, they don't like dealing with courts, with lawyers and so forth. But it doesn't hurt to ask and it doesn't cost anything to ask. Often some of the people or most of the people would not want to talk to you, but then one or two people will have some very useful information for your case. Let me give you a very simple example. Let's say you have some evidence of age discrimination, let's say you have some evidence that suggests that you were terminated because you're older, but you recognize that your case is not rock solid because the employer is going to have a bunch of other arguments as to why they terminated you that has nothing to do with your age. And then imagine that you find one co-worker who overheard your manager say that they need someone younger for your position, even if they said it behind closed doors, even if they said it on the phone while talking to another executive. Or imagine that one of your former co-workers is friends on Facebook or on LinkedIn or elsewhere with your manager and that manager posted a comment about you suggesting that they wanted to get rid of you because you're older in so many words or because they wanted someone younger in your position. Even one such email, one such text message or one such statement can make a difference between winning a case and losing a case or between having a strong case and a weak case, between having a larger settlement or a small settlement and of course between being able to prove your case in front of a judge or a jury versus not being able to prove your case. Because remember, the burden of proof is on you. The employer doesn't have to prove anything. You have to prove that the reason or at least one reason for your termination was discriminatory such as age or retaliatory. And having such evidence, having witnesses to corroborate your story, witnesses who actually have factual information supporting your side of the story can be critical. Again, getting this evidence doesn't cost anything. It takes a little bit of effort to call as many people as possible and if they don't want to talk to you, not a big deal, no harm. You tried, they don't want to talk to you, you can't force them, you could subpoena them of course but often when you subpoena these people they're not going to tell you what you want to hear. Either way, you can leave those decisions to your attorney and speaking of which a question often arises whether you're better off contacting potential witnesses yourself or it's better if your lawyer does that. This depends on the circumstances. This depends on the specifics of your termination, of your situation. The more important factor is contacting these witnesses, the ones that are still employed with the company before you file a lawsuit because after you file and after the employer is served they often instruct, they often order their employees not to talk to you and not to talk to your lawyers. So if you want to get their statement, if you want to get something from them, do it earlier than later. Ideally you want to talk to these witnesses, have a nice conversation maybe even before you speak with an attorney, before you hire a lawyer for your case and then once you meet with the lawyer you could say look these are my facts, this is what my case is about and by the way I have a couple of witnesses lined up who will support my side of the story because they have this evidence and that evidence. That would be ideal but even if not you can come to your meeting with a lawyer and you can tell them look I might have some witnesses, maybe I could talk to them, maybe you could talk to them, here are their names, here are their phone numbers, here is what they potentially know. Again, even one witness, one email, one text message, one statement by a manager can make a huge difference and can make your case much stronger, much more compelling and much more valuable. Thank you.