Yes. Most states have laws requiring employers to give employees their final paychecks very soon after termination -- sometimes on their last day of work. This may mean that you cannot wait for your usual payroll process to issue the final check. In some states, these deadlines depend on whether the employee was fired or quit. For a chart of each state's laws, see Final Paychecks for Departing Employees.

This is a very tricky area. On the one hand, you want to acknowledge that their coworker is no longer around. On the other hand, you don't want to fuel office gossip or, worse, wind up on the receiving end of a lawsuit. The safest course of action is to make a limited statement without going into detail. You might want to say something like, "Sarah is no longer with the company. Sam and Martin will be sharing her job duties until we are able to replace her."

Avoid the temptation to explain why the employee is gone. If these statements put the employee in a bad light (as most reasons for firing do), and the employee later hears of them, you might get sued for defamation.

For more information on what to say about former employees, including providing references and telling coworkers, see Giving References for Former Employees.

The course of action least likely to land you in legal hot water is to say as little as possible. Many employers adopt a policy of giving out only dates of employment, job title, and final salary to prospective employers. As long as you stick to easily documented facts and keep it brief, you will stay out of trouble.

If you decide to give more expansive references, use caution. If you make false statements about a former employee with the intent to harm his or her reputation, you can be sued for defamation.

For more information, see Giving References for Former Employees.

Probably not. Unless you lead your employees to believe that they are entitled to severance (through language in an employment contract, employee handbook, or oral promise, or by routinely paying severance to departing employees), you are under no obligation to do so.

However, many employers customarily offer severance pay to all long-term employees. A severance package helps ease the burden of being fired and may help the employee transition to a new job. A severance package may also help soothe the bad feelings of a fired employee. Not only will this ease your conscience when you have to fire employees, it will also make lawsuits from former employees less likely. After all, a former employee who has been rewarded for prior service to the company may not be particularly motivated to sue.

For ideas on whether to offer a severance package and what to include if you do, see Should You Offer Severance Pay?