Make sure your disciplinary documents have enough detail to justify the punishment.

When an employee sues claiming a discriminatory firing, the court will want to see detailed documented reasoning for your action.

No (or weak) documents = a no (or weak) defense.

Details are especially important when different employees break similar rules and you punish some more harshly than others. You need to be able to show why you fired one employee while another whose misconduct was identical was allowed to keep his job.

Recent case: Paul, who is over 40, worked as a supervisor for a drug manufacturer and was in charge of product safety. One day, he signed off on a shipment and certified that he'd reviewed the product sterility process. Later, it came out that he hadn't actually viewed the process. An investigation followed, and Paul was fired for falsifying records.

He sued, alleging that a younger worker who had committed a similar falsification had kept her job.

Verdict...