Attorney fee awards are a major driver of class action litigation – both in the employment and other contexts. How they are awarded, and what is “reasonable” has been an ongoing source of contention in many cases. A recent...more
In the 1991 movie “Silence of the Lambs” and the book on which it was based, FBI trainee Clarice Starling is tasked with working with the now-infamous Hannibal Lector to find a serial killer. That movie won a Best Actress...more
Joint or single employer liability has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, where a company is held responsible for the employment obligations of a sufficiently interrelated contractor or corporate entity. ...more
Successful FLSA plaintiffs will likely receive not only the claimed unpaid overtime or minimum wage, but also liquidated (double damages) and payment of their attorney fees. But what if they want . . . more? Will a RICO claim...more
Just before the pandemic triggered closings across the country, we identified an Illinois case as a good candidate for discussion. As the pandemic has eased, we’re taking the time now to address issues relating to the...more
Few collective actions are tried, and even when they are, unexpected problems can easily arise. Those problems in a recent case led to the court vacating a jury verdict for the plaintiffs due to what might be characterized as...more
More than 75 years ago, just four years after the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the United States Supreme Court recognized what has now become known as the fluctuating work week (or “FWW”) as an alternative...more
It’s hard not to express cynicism when discussing attorney fee awards in overtime class and collective actions. Courts have adopted wildly different tests and benchmarks, and different jurisdictions apply very different...more
A key premise of a class action is that a court can, in essence, review the merits of the class representative’s claims and apply the result of that review across the class as a whole. This concept is most readily found in...more
Why, no, a plaintiff can’t eat his cake and have it, too - It is often the case that plaintiffs who cannot proceed as a class will settle their individual claims....more
Virtually every brief seeking conditional certification will point to an employer policy that allegedly ties the collective or class together. But as a growing number of courts are recognizing, a uniform policy is not...more
The U.S. Women’s Soccer team has won four FIFA World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals. The U.S. Men’s Soccer team has not, and did not even qualify for the most recent men’s World Cup. In the wake of the successes of...more
On March 18, 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). The Act took effect April 1, 2020, and it sunsets on December 31, 2020. This set of FAQs is intended to...more
Misclassification cases are grist for the mill in wage and hour litigation. As we have pointed out previously, the typical pattern is for the plaintiff to assert claims for unpaid overtime on the grounds that the position...more
On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). The Act took effect April 1, 2020, and it sunsets on December 31, 2020. This set of FAQs is...more
Grocery stores have taken on special prominence as being on the front lines of the current coronavirus pandemic. Just as that role was becoming apparent, the federal district court in Maryland issued a strong opinion not only...more
On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). The Act took effect April 1, 2020, and it sunsets on December 31, 2020. This set of FAQs is...more
On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”)....more
It’s been awhile since we’ve addressed attempts at bringing class action disability claims (September 27, 2013 and March 6, 2014), but as we’ve noted in the past, they make poor candidates for class action treatment....more
Two Centuries of Federal Precedent Given Effect -
We’ve blogged several times the ongoing saga involving AB 51, California’s attempt to prevent the mandatory arbitration of employment claims largely by sanctioning...more
We’ve commented in the past that off-the-clock cases can make poor candidates for class certification, particularly when the employer’s policies require that employees perform work only while clocked in. ...more
Not quite two years ago, the Supreme Court decided the case of Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, 138 S. Ct. 1134 (2018), a case we blogged. The case itself involved the issue of whether service consultants at auto dealers...more
While class actions may prove lucrative for the plaintiffs who bring them, most cases just aren’t suitable for class action treatment and many would likely fare far better if the plaintiffs simply limited themselves to a...more
Ten years ago, the Ninth Circuit upheld the certification of a sprawling nationwide class action in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., only to see that decision overturned a year later by the Supreme Court. ...more
A recent case from the Third Circuit casts a spotlight on many of the problems inherent in so-called off-the-clock claims for overtime....more