Here's another case where a company is going to wish that legal actions ran by PR first: Microsoft is asking some laid off workers to pay back excessive severance pay:

The software giant, which recently laid off 1,400 employees, sent letters (see image below) [ed: follow the link for that] this week to some of those former workers letting them know that their severance payouts were a bit too "generous" and respectfully requested that the former employees pay back that money, according to a report Saturday on TechCrunch.

Never mind the accounting or tax aspects of this - just consider how that's going to look as it gets publicity. Heck, MS is big enough that this could easily land on a major media site, like Drudge.

As time goes by, I'm more and more convinced that the legal department should report to the PR staff, and not be allowed to do anything before getting a PR blessing...