By Bridget Truxillo, Esq.
You have run the interview. You have taken the stand. Neither one prepares you for the day the proceeding is about you.
For officers facing workplace disputes, internal investigations, or employment claims, the process often does not end with a disciplinary decision. The next step is a formal proceeding: mediation, an administrative hearing, arbitration, or litigation in court. What happens in that room is shaped almost entirely by work you do before you walk into it.
Understand the type of proceeding you are in
These are not all the same, and preparation that fits one can be wrong for another.
Mediation is a voluntary, confidential process in which a neutral third party helps the parties reach an agreement. The mediator does not decide the outcome. You and the other side do. Courts and contracts frequently require mediation before a case moves forward.
Arbitration is more formal. A neutral arbitrator or panel hears evidence and issues a decision that may be binding. If you are in a union, your collective bargaining agreement may route certain disputes here.
Administrative hearings are run by a government agency, such as the EEOC, a civil service commission, or a police oversight board, under that agency’s own procedural rules.
Litigation means court: rules of evidence, discovery, depositions, and a judge or jury.
Each carries different rules, timelines and standards of proof. Identify yours first.
Build your paper trail before you walk in the room
In employment disputes, documentation is frequently the deciding factor. What you have on paper matters more than what you remember.
Gather:
- Written communications related to the dispute, including emails, texts, memos and letters
- Performance evaluations and commendations
- Records of the incidents at issue, with dates, times, locations, and witnesses
- Documentation of any informal complaint or request for help you made
- Agency policies and procedures relevant to the dispute
- Your personnel file, which you have a right to request in most jurisdictions
- Contemporaneous notes on key conversations and incidents
Keep all of it on your own devices and your own accounts. Agency email, agency report systems and the phone the department issued you belong to the department. When your access changes, and it can change without notice, records kept there go with it.
A word on timing. Documentation loses value when it is created after the fact. A running log kept as events happened carries real weight. If you are starting today, start today, and keep it factual. Do not exaggerate and do not editorialize.
Know your own case
Before any proceeding, you should be able to state four things plainly.
- What happened, as a factual account of the events in question.
- What you did, including your actions, your decisions, and your reasoning at the time.
- What the impact has been on your career, your assignments, and your professional standing.
- What you are asking for.
Your attorney will refine this. But walking in with an organized account rather than a general sense of grievance changes how you are heard. Practice telling it out loud, in order, without the tangents.
Get counsel, and work with counsel
If you are facing mediation or a formal proceeding over your employment, you need representation. General advice, union guidance alone and a colleague’s reading of the law are not substitutes.
An attorney experienced in law enforcement employment law can evaluate the strength of your case, tell you which evidence matters, prepare you for the questions you will actually face, review any agreement before you sign it, and identify procedural errors or rights violations that you would not spot on your own.
If cost is a concern, ask how the firm bills. Many employment attorneys handle discrimination and retaliation matters on a contingency basis, which means fees are drawn from a recovery rather than paid up front.
Your union may provide representation or a referral. Understand what your contract actually covers. Union interests and your individual interests do not always align, and where they diverge, independent counsel matters.
Preparing for mediation
Mediation is a negotiation, not a trial. The party who arrives with a written position, a clear priority list and a defined point of flexibility tends to leave with terms. The party who arrives expecting vindication tends to leave with nothing.
Prepare a written summary of your position and the outcome you want. Know what matters most and where you can move. Stay professional even when the other side does not. Listen, because mediation often surfaces options you had not considered. Ask your attorney in advance what you can and cannot say without damaging your position if the case continues.
Do not sign anything in the room without your attorney reading it first.
Even when mediation produces no settlement, it usually narrows what is left to decide.
Preparing for hearings, arbitration and depositions
Review every document with your attorney. Build a timeline. Identify and brief your witnesses. Work through the other side’s arguments and your responses to them. Then practice answering hard questions truthfully and briefly.
Testimony is where officers most often hurt themselves. You are trained to be confident, direct, and in command of the exchange. Those instincts work against you here.
Listen to the question. Answer the question that was asked, not the one you expected to hear. If it is unclear, ask.
Do not volunteer. Answer, then stop. The impulse to explain is the one that costs officers the most. Say so when you do not know or do not remember. Guessing damages your credibility when the accurate answer surfaces later.
Opposing counsel will push, repeat and challenge your account. That is the job. Take the breath before you answer. Pause is not weakness.
Tell the truth. Under pressure, people minimize and leave things out. Small inconsistencies undermine large cases.
| Common mistakes |
|
Talking before the proceeding. What you say to colleagues, supervisors and on social media can become evidence. Limit it to your attorney. Waiting. Filing windows are real and they are short. A federal discrimination or retaliation charge with the EEOC generally must be filed within 300 days of the alleged unlawful action. States have their EEO divisions and filing dates vary. Letting emotion set strategy. The experience is personal. The presentation cannot be. Assuming the other side is not prepared. Your employer has counsel, in-house or outside, and that counsel has done this before. Prepare on the assumption that the other side is ready. Assuming the union handles everything. Union representation has limits written into your contract. Read them before you rely on them. |
What to bring
Bring the documentation you have already gathered, organized in a binder by date or by topic, along with your timeline, witness contact information, applicable agency policies and your identification. Bring nothing your attorney has not seen. Social media posts and informal messages belong in that category.
| What officers can learn |
|
1. Identify your proceeding first. Mediation, arbitration, administrative hearing and litigation each run on different rules. 2. Document from the moment you sense a problem. Keep your records organized and preserve relevant documentation. 3. Request your personnel file early. Do it while your access is intact. 4. Know your case. Be able to state what happened, what you did, the impact and what you want — in that order and out loud. 5. Retain counsel before the proceeding. Do not wait until after a bad session to seek representation. 6. Answer what was asked. In testimony, answer the question and stop. 7. Watch the calendar. Filing deadlines can close whether or not you are ready. |
A message for agency leadership
A supervisor does not have to agree with how an officer describes what happened. Agreement was never the requirement. What the law requires is that the officer’s right to report and document the matter stays open, regardless of whether command staff buys the officer’s version of events. Block that process, discourage a complaint, or talk an officer out of putting something in writing, and the exposure lands on the agency and, often, on the individual who did the blocking.
There is a difference between hearing an officer out and agreeing with them. Leadership can do the first without the second. An officer who leaves that conversation feeling dismissed, or made to feel foolish for raising it, stops documenting. An officer who leaves feeling heard keeps a record, and a record protects the agency as much as it protects the officer.
Some cases are hard to win. That is not grounds to keep an officer from filing one. Train leadership to guide officers to the right process, not away from it.
Final takeaway
You prepare for a critical incident before it happens, because preparation is the only part of it you control. A proceeding is no different. Pull your documentation onto your own device tonight, request your personnel file this week and get counsel involved before the first session, not after it. If a deadline is running, it is running now.
This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction.
About the author
Bridget Truxillo is an attorney, former SWAT and undercover narcotics deputy sheriff and the founder of the Lady Law Shield Law Firm. She combines 30 years of experience in law enforcement, leadership, wellness and legal advocacy to help officers protect their rights and strengthen their well-being.
