Say that you received a bonus for joining a firm that has to be paid pack if you decide to leave within one year. What is the likelihood that the firm will pursue this? How long can they pursue this for? Can they come to me after three years has passed and ask for this money?

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What’s the statute of limitations on contract disputes in your state?

They might not come after the money if you leave and refuse to give it back, but it makes you look like garbage. Firms/people can be petty- don’t put them in a position to want to make you look bad.

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They can go after you. Whether or not they will is an unfortunate guessing game that provides a nice justification for the existence of statutes of limitation.

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See if you can use two weeks of PTO to get you to the end of your agreed upon date and avoid any headaches.

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It could be part of their calculations for your final pay. So, last paycheck (including any PTO that will be paid out), minus the bonus. Maybe they’ll prorate the amount you owe back?

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Not an employment lawyer, but virtually positive they can’t deduct from your last paycheck without permission. However, this happened to my partners and me - gave a relatively small signing bonus to get an associate to join us from in house, we never conditioned it and then the associate left after 8 weeks back to the in house job but with a big promotion. Didn’t offer to return the bonus, and in fairness it wasn’t conditional. We were really pissed and would have said something but they sent us work (to buy us off no doubt) so then we just wrote it off as a cost of getting a new client. (Work lasted less than a year.) We wouldn’t say anything publicly about this person but you bet we think the person is sleazy and absolutely burned any bridge of ever returning to our firm. If someone was going to hire this person and asked me, I would say “X worked for us for 8 weeks.” And then give the “I’m not saying more” stare that conveys alot. I can’t tell, OP, if you have been there less than or more than a year. If less than, be the person with the highest integrity and offer to return it.

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If they don’t automatically deduct from the final check, I’m sure it’s a slam dunk case for the firm. Probably not worth risking your professional credibility over a bonus.

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This is an interesting topic at this time. I would think that a unilateral salary reduction, which appears to be the norm these days, would relieve you of the obligation to repay. Under these circumstances, the firm has essentially breached the agreement first, so leaving relatively soon after a salary cut may get you off the hook.

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Pay it back, even though it is tempting not to. The harm to your professional reputation is not worth whatever signing bonus you got.

Off topic but how come you’re planning to leave so quickly? A year isn’t a long time.

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