A special section of our site dedicated to class actions, collective actions, and impact litigation. Featuring selected court cases, news stories, firms, case websites, and cy pres awards.
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In the Courts
Liu v. Amerco
United States First Circuit | Decision Date: May 4, 2012
In a class action suit alleging that U-Haul had engaged in an attempted price-fixing scheme in violation of state consumer protection law, the district court's dismissal is vacated, where: 1) diversity jurisdiction existed, since the amount in controversy as to the class would likely exceed $5,000,000; 2) the alleged acts violated the state law; and 3) the plaintiff adequately pled causation of damages. Read the decision.
Kinecta Alternative Financial Solutions Inc. v. Superior Court (Malone)
California Court of Appeal | Decision Date: April 25, 2012
In a putative class action alleging wage and hour violations by an employer, in which the defendant moved to compel arbitration of the plaintiff's individual claims, alleging failure to pay overtime and provide rest and meal periods, and to dismiss the class claims, it is held that: 1) the plaintiff did not provide evidence establishing that the provision authorizing only bilateral arbitration was unenforceable or that classwide arbitration was required; and 2) the parties' arbitration agreement did not authorize class arbitration, so the order denying the defendant's motion to dismiss class claims without prejudice had to be reversed. Read the decision.
In the News
Former Employee Claims She was Fired Illegally for Being Pregnant
A former employee of a Kokomo restaurant is saying she was illegally fired because she was pregnant. Based on work reviews, the woman was meeting performance expectations at Rock Bottom Restaurant in Kokomo upon termination. A Rock Bottom manager admitted the woman was sent on maternity leave because they were concerned about liability. Read the full story.
Former Perkins Coie Attorney Sues Firm Over Paycheck Deductions, Seeks Class Action Status
A corporate attorney who formerly worked in the Menlo Park, Calif., office of Perkins Coie has sued the law firm in federal court in California, contending that it improperly made deductions from his pay and did not provide an accurate, itemized statement of his wages as required by state law. Read the full story.
Managers Sue for Overtime, Citing Unfair Practices
A growing number of current and former employees are suing employers in federal courts for wage and hour violations. In 2011, 7,006 wage-and-hour lawsuits were filed in federal courts, most of which were class action cases. That’s up 32 percent from 2008, and a 378 percent increase since 2000, according to an April report from law firm Seyfarth Shaw. Read the full story.
Looking into Labor: The Future of Class Action Waiver
In recent years, an increasing number of employers have promulgated policies that require their employees to submit employment claims to arbitration and to waive the rights to proceed in court and to a jury trial. The scope of the claims covered by these policies depends on what the employers want to cover, but they range from common law torts arising out of the employment relationship to wrongful termination claims, employment contract claims, claims under the employment discrimination laws and claims for violations of federal and state minimum wage and overtime laws. These policies generally exclude claims subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of federal or state agencies. Read the full story.
Publix Unpaid Overtime Class Action: What is Chinese Overtime?
Chinese what? Ok, you’ve probably heard of Chinese water torture. And Chinese New Year. And Chinese take-out (personal fave). But Chinese Overtime?Yes, Chinese Overtime. If you’re in a job in which the work hours tend to fluctuate each week and you get overtime pay, then you may have heard it referred to as either variable workweek overtime pay or half-time overtime pay. Read the full story.
Featured Firms
Cohelan Khoury & Singer
For over 25 years, Cohelan Khoury & Singer has represented plaintiffs in complex California litigation in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Francisco, Alameda, and Sacramento counties, emphasizing labor and employment, overtime labor laws, overtime class actions, consumer, antitrust, and public interest cases. Visit our website at ckslaw.com/.
Outten & Golden
Outten & Golden LLP is a 25+ attorney New York City firm that represents only employees in a wide variety of employment matters. O&G's Class Action Practice Group has represented tens of thousands of employees nationwide with claims of systemic race discrimination, gender discrimination, unpaid overtime and minimum wage, tip misappropriation, unlawful wage deductions, and WARN Act violations. O&G's other practice groups represent individuals with employment issues including discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower claims, and severance and contract negotiations. Visit our website at www.outtengolden.com/. Visit our website at www.outtengolden.com/.
Case Websites
Eighth Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report
http://www.seyfarth.com/publications/Eighth-Annual-Workplace-Class-Action
Now in its eighth annual edition, Seyfarth’s Workplace Class Action Litigation Report examines the theoretical and strategic uncertainties stemming from the Supreme Court’s employment law and class action rulings in 2011, and the challenges they pose for companies and their defense counsel. The Report also makes clear that workplace lawsuit filings rose on nearly every front last year, from Fair Labor Standards Act and ERISA to government enforcement actions, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission setting a new record for discrimination charges brought against private-sector employers in a single year. Seyfarth notes that the Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, handed down last June, has already been cited more than 260 times in federal and state court opinions, and AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion has been cited 215 times - remarkable figures for rulings less than a year old. Dukes, which established a new standard for certifying class actions, and Concepcion, which held that federal arbitration law supersedes limitations imposed by individual states, opened the floodgates to a wave a new case law developments in class actions and class arbitrations, which will continue to evolve in the coming year and impact litigants for years to come.
Cy Pres Awards
Velez v. Novartis (Sanford Wittels & Heisler)
Workplace Fairness was a recipient of a cy pres award in Velez v. Novartis. Velez is the largest gender discrimination case to ever go to trial, and ended in the jury finding on behalf of a class of 5,600 female sales representatives in their gender pay and promotion and pregnancy discrimination claims. The jury also awarded 12 testifying current and former Novartis sales reps $3.36 million in compensatory damages and the class of 5,600 women an additional $250 million in punitive damages. In addition, the May 2010 verdict from the jury meant that the remaining 5,600 women in the class were also entitled to additional awards of backpay and to seek compensatory damage awards up to $300,000 each. In July 2010, Class Counsel Sanford Wittels & Heisler announced a settlement on behalf of all female sales reps to present, increasing the class size to approximately 6,200 women in total. On November 30, 2010 Judge Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court of the Eastern District of New York, approved the final settlement agreement valued at $175 million. $22.5M earmarked for broad-reaching systemic reforms is believed to be among the largest non-monetary settlements ever reached. These systemic reforms will address: (1) the way Novartis promotes women into management; (2) the way Novartis evaluates its employees; (3) the way Novartis compensates its employees; (4) the way Novartis investigates and responds to complaints of discrimination and unfair treatment. $60M is set aside for back pay awards -- 100% of the value of back pay damages to the class. Approximately $40M is set aside for compensatory damages, with each class member having the right to seek payments up to the full $300,000 allowed under law. The remainder of the monetary fund provides service payments to class representatives and class members who helped prosecute the case, attorneys’ fees and case expenses, the administrative costs of implementing the settlement terms, and cy pres awards such as the one received by Workplace Fairness. The presiding judge noted that SWH achieved “extraordinary” and “one of a kind” results for the class in both the trial and the later settlement.
Caffarelli & Siegel, Lichten & Liss-Riordan
Marc Siegel and Brad Manewith of Caffarelli & Siegel and Shannon Liss-Riordan and Hillary Schwab of Lichten & Liss-Riordan worked on behalf of a class of plaintiffs in a wage case and provided a cy pres award to Workplace Fairness. Due to confidentiality restrictions, we are unable to disclose more about the case, but are very grateful for their generosity.
