We Do It Differently
We have spent more than 25 years developing ways to improve the delivery of legal services for employees who have been wrongfully dismissed. We also help employees negotiate their employment contracts as they begin work. As a result, we are leaders in the field and offer these innovative solutions:
- We evaluate your severance and help you respond within the week of your termination
- We provide “legal coaching” for those who would like to represent themselves
- And, our most popular innovation in 25 years: we provide "pay-as-you-go" services to manage your legal budget. No retainer required!
Lisa Teryl
Co-founder of Teryl Scott Lawyers Inc.
Book Now
Our Halifax employment lawyers, who serve all of Nova Scotia, can see you within the week. Your first meeting can be by video, in person or by telephone.
Select your booking preference:
by phone (902-706-5030)
or through our on-line calendar
Our Services In Wrongful Dismissal
Death, divorce, and job terminations are some of life’s most stressful life events.
Job terminations are made worse by employer errors. The most common error by employers is to allege cause when there is none. The second most common error is to terminate an employee without severance when they have no cause or good reason. Errors can be fixed but they don’t fix themselves. Our employment lawyers can make things right and ensure you receive the compensation you are owed.
A wrongful dismissal occurs when the employer terminates an employee without providing the appropriate amount of severance or working notice.
Reasonable severance is approximately one month’s pay for every year of service if there is no employment contract that states otherwise.
Employment Law FAQs
For termination review, a minimum 1 hour consultation is required to start and the cost of this is $550 plus HST for senior counsel and $475 plus HST for associate lawyers.
If further time is needed to investigate or respond, we offer legal coaching with senior counsel for this and the cost is $550 per hour (plus a 4% admin fee and HST) after the initial consultation. Our associate lawyers are a cost of $475 per hour (plus a 4% admin fee and HST) after the initial consultation.
Employment lawyers assist employees to:
- understand their legal rights related to terminations
- creating and reviewing employment contracts and
- address human rights complaints
They can also provide help to employers on these issues. Employment lawyers also assist with workplace investigations, arbitrations and mediation services.
It depends on the type of unfair treatment you experience. You are protected from discrimination if you are receiving unfair treatment for a reason covered by a human rights act. These reasons, as examples, include discriminating based on gender, having a particular religious belief, having a disability and/or being a person of color.
Wrongful termination happens when an employer, without cause, does not provide notice to the employee that they are losing their job. If there is no employment contract that states otherwise, non-unionized employees should be given about one-month notice of termination for every year they worked or the equivalent in pay. It’s important to contact an employment lawyer to review the terms of severance since there are other entitlements other than one month’s notice.
Yes, we always recommend legal help. At a minimum, you should have legal coaching. For non-unionized workers, the Small Claims Court in Nova Scotia allows claims up to $25,000 for wrongful termination.
Click here to find more information.
Our Testimonials
Lisa helped advise me during a recent employment law dispute. It was time sensitive and she quickly navigated the various clauses in my contract, the legal precedent, and provides suggestions of how to precede. She also took into account what I personally wanted out of a possible resolution, which I appreciated.
Couldn't be happier with the experience. I absolutely would go to her for council in future employment matters. I recommend her for any employee with an employment law issue.
Lisa Teryl’s guidance with a Small Claims case, that wasn’t actually so small, proved to be on point and indispensable in developing a winning strategy. Her analytical skills and judgement, combined with her creative problem solving, allowed for possible solutions not readily apparent to someone without the knowledge and experience she has. It was certainly worth having Lisa on my side.
Highly recommended.
Teryl Scott was very helpful for the board of my non-profit getting our employee contracts done right.
