Employment Law

The Voluntary Legal Services Program of Northern California provides services to clients who need assistance with legal problems associated with their employment. These legal problems include the denial of unemployment benefits, unpaid wage disputes, and discrimination or harassment, among other problems.

Eligible clients with these types of problems are first referred to VLSP's Employment Clinic. The Clinic is staffed by attorneys who are experienced in employment and labor law, as well as law students from the University of California at Davis School of Law and McGeorge School of Law. We endeavor to make the Clinic a productive learning environment for the law students while ensuring that our clients receive quality legal assistance.

The Clinic's staff and volunteers represent clients in limited types of legal proceedings, primarily Unemployment Insurance and Labor Commissioner cases.  Not all clients with these types of legal issues are provided assistance beyond clinic advice.  The Clinic is primarily an advice Clinic.  We do not provide help with lawsuit paperwork. There are many self-help and informational packets available to help explain almost every employment-related situation that is encountered at the Clinic. On a limited basis, certain clients assisted at the Clinic will subsequently be assigned a volunteer attorney who will represent them throughout their entire case.