Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Texas

Re: My husbands employer will not release his last check

File a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission for your husband's final paycheck. It's faster, and less expensive, than suing the ex-employer for it.

Re: My husbands employer will not release his last check

What you have here is a classic "chicken" or "egg" problem. They probably are wrong in conditioning his salary on the signing of the resignation form. However, this company may not care whether they are right or wrong on this point. Thus, you must come up with some alternatives.

Option No.1: Have husband to call to find out: (a) If they will honor a power of attorney from your husband to you for you to pick up and deliver a resignation letter or form, and collect his check. (b) He needs to find out whether the resignation may be stated in a letter from him, or whether it needs to be on their form. If they require that it be on their form, he should request a copy to be faxed or mailed to him. If they require a written request from your husband before they will send him the form, then he will have to send a letter (fax if they will they will agree) requesting the form. I cannot visualize that the company would consider the resignation form to be some type of top secret matter that they would hassle him on the matter.

Option No. 2: Just because someone violates the law, does not mean that will obey the law when you inform them about the law. Thus one option is to sue them small claims court [up to $5,000 in Texas].

Option No. 3: Sometimes the Department of Labor [Work Force Commission] may be willing to get involved to resolve this matter.

Option No. 4: Hire an attorney to work on this.

Option No. 5: Husband may need to take leave from his new job and go get his check.

NOTE: Some of the options set out above are not practical or economical, but they still are options. It is somewhat like dealing with a governmental agency -- Use their form -- fill it out like they want it, etc. They may be wrong, but it probably is not economical to go to court over the matter. If he gets no alternative solution, he may have to resort to Option No. 5.

Re: My husbands employer will not release his last check

I agree that having an attorney contact the ex-employer for your husband may one way to speed up the process. They may choose to change their position.