Find the original and complete article written by Jahmal Kennedy for CBS Austin here.

Below is the quoted advice provided by Managing Attorney and Founder, Dan Ross, on the next steps to take if the Tesla layoffs impact you.

“Dan Ross is the principal lawyer at Ross Scalise Law Group, a labor-employment firm here in Texas’ capital city. Ross says in situations involving mass layoffs severance packages are typically issued.

When that happens the Austin-based attorney says, if possible, you should see a lawyer.

“To see if they have the ability to, for example, negotiate their severance package to see if it can become more reasonable,” he said.

Ross says this based on whatever legal claims the employee may have and cites that “there are downfalls or potential pitfalls to signing an agreement that people don’t necessarily realize can happen.”

One of those downfalls, he says, is that the employee can be sued by the company “in the event that the company believes that they have violated some provisions that are contained in a contract.”

Ross advises against just signing a severance agreement, even though money is involved without proper legal counsel. He says a severance agreement is typically made up of three parts: the release, a confidentiality agreement, and a non-disparagement agreement.

“A lot of my work, unfortunately, is involved in defending employees who have been sued by their company for, for example, violating a non-compete agreement, or giving out confidential information or information that the company feels is confidential,” Ross said.

Ross says in the event that an employee cannot afford to pay for an attorney to review their severance package, he says their intake specialists will ask questions about their experience and there’s a chance an attorney would waive fees for the consultation.

Ross also encourages any employee laid off to apply for unemployment.”