With new labor laws taking effect in 2008 – including an increase in the minimum wage from $7.50 to $8 per hour – more companies could find themselves susceptible to lawsuits, experts warn.

“I could go into just about any if not all places of employment and find some violation somewhere,” said employment law expert Richard Rybicki, a partner with Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty in Santa Rosa and Napa. “The state makes it very easy for an employee to file a claim and procedures are set up in a way that it is a disincentive for employers to appeal.”

Brenda Gilchrist, co-founder of Santa Rosa human resources firm, The HR Matrix, said labor law suits are increasing at the same time reforms are slowing the pace of legal actions surrounding worker’s compensation.

She said labor violations are the “low hanging fruit” and almost always won by the employees.

During the last year, she has seen an increasing number of employers randomly checked and receive hefty and sometimes crippling fines.

In one case, a small Sonoma County restaurant was actually forced to close after a terminated employee told the state they never received rest or meal breaks. Even though the company allowed breaks, it did not require employees to clock out for meal periods and for that reason had no record that any breaks were provided.

Ms. Gilchrist warned that even more dangerous is that these cases can have a snowball effect in the company and result in class-action lawsuits.

In November, Staples settled a large class-action lawsuit. Wal-Mart was forced to pay California employees $172 million for meal-time violations and Citigroup Global Markets paid $98 million in 2006.

This year, several key pieces of labor legislation will increase the probability that employers will violate labor law.

Ms. Gilchrist and Mr. Rybicki said it is essential that a third party expert audit company books, especially for large companies with more than 50 employees.

“The leading cause of these violations is not having proper documentation,” Mr. Rybicki said. “It’s best to be proactive about it and not wait until they are at your door.”

A third party can provide audits that assess if the employer is in compliance or what it can do to become compliant. If the company is faced with a complaint, the consultant also provides a source to coach them through the process.

Ms. Gilchrist said companies in every industry are susceptible, but she said spas, retail and restaurants seem to be targeted.

“An employer can be perfectly honest about how they do business and sincerely believe they are not violating any law, but then fall in a hole because of a technicality,” Mr. Rybicki said.

And if an attorney finds a weakness, “they can attach other claims and other employees,” he said.