These are the actual questions on this firm’s intake form, set out here in advance. Read them first. Some people find their answer before they ever reach the form, and that is the point — ten minutes here is better than an hour spent on a claim that was never going to go anywhere.
Nothing on this page is a form. There is nothing to submit and nothing to send. It is a list of what you will be asked, so that when you do answer, you answer well.
The timeline of events matters more than anything else. What you did, when your employer learned of it, and what happened to you afterward, in order, with dates and with people’s own words where you remember them. Retaliation cases are proved and lost on chronology.
One distinction worth understanding, for your own protection. What you tell this office during intake is a communication to a lawyer about your situation. Notes kept at home to jog your own memory — a diary, a running log, a file of your own — are a different thing entirely, and in litigation they can end up being read by your employer’s lawyers. So put the effort into what you tell us rather than into a record you keep on the side.
Where you do not know something, say so. “I don’t know” is a real answer and it is far more useful than a guess presented as a fact.
Contact details, and how you found the office. Nothing here is hard.
1 follow-up question in this section appear only if your answer calls for it.
Where you worked and when. Get the employer's legal name right if you can — it is on your paycheck or W-2, and it is not always the name on the sign.
3 follow-up questions in this section appear only if your answer calls for them.
Who signs your paycheck. This decides which laws reach your employer at all — the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act, for instance, applies only to public employers.
1 follow-up question in this section appear only if your answer calls for it.
The heart of it. Almost every case this office takes begins with something the employee did that the law protects. What you did, who knew, and when.
3 follow-up questions in this section appear only if your answer calls for them.
What the employer did next, and what it said the reason was. Give their words, not your summary of them.
2 follow-up questions in this section appear only if your answer calls for them.
A separate question, and “none of these” is a perfectly good answer. Retaliation does not require it.
Whether an agency is already involved.
2 follow-up questions in this section appear only if your answer calls for them.
What this has cost you.
1 follow-up question in this section appear only if your answer calls for it.
Things that can change or end a claim. Answer these plainly — a problem known early is a problem that can be dealt with.
The timeline. This is the single most valuable thing you can give us.
The form is not open to the public directly, and that is deliberate. A few short questions come first — where you worked, who employed you, what happened, and what you had done beforehand — because they settle whether this office can help you at all. If the answer is no, you will be told so on the spot, rather than after an hour of typing and a week of waiting.
Two things worth knowing before you start. Brett Duke is licensed in New Mexico and Texas only, and takes New Mexico cases anywhere in the state; on the Texas side the practice is built around El Paso County. And this office represents people whose employment has already ended.
Prefer to talk? Call and you will be asked these same questions, so it helps to have read them.
Two pages answer that better than a form can. The questions this office asks before taking a case is candid about what is not a case. The retaliation page sorts the eight situations this firm actually handles, so you can find the one that matches what you did.
Some are much shorter than people expect. The sooner you call, the more options are still open.