Conditional Certification

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Co-authored by Molly C. Mooney and Noah Finkel

Last week, a federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois lifted the weight of collective action certification off Life Time Fitness, Inc. and refused to certify a proposed collective of more than 6,000 personal trainers because each trainer’s employment varied too much to resolve their potential claims on a collective basis.
Continue Reading Lifting the Weight: Conditional Certification Denied for Personal Trainers Claiming Off-the-Clock Work

Authored by Alex Passantino

‘Twas the week before Christmas, 2-0-1-5
When the poetry elves on the blog came alive.
Crafting their rhymes with a purpose so clear:
Presenting the wage-hour gems of the year.

In January, for new regs in this year our breath bated.
Then for six painful months, we speculated and waited.
And just as…
Continue Reading I’m Dreaming of a White Collar: 2015 Year in Review

sealCo-authored by Laura E. Reasons and Noah A. Finkel

BlackBerry devices may be a thing of the past; but smartphones–and their ability to allow employees to be constantly connected–certainly aren’t going away any time soon.

On Thursday, a judge in the Northern District of Illinois held in Allen v. City of Chicago that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) did not…
Continue Reading So What About Those “BlackBerry Claims” We’ve Been Worried About?

Co-authored by Robert S. Whitman and Howard M. Wexler

Expert witness fees are not recoverable under the FLSA. So held the Second Circuit in a decision that highlights a strategy we have previously discussed for employers to fend off class/collective actions.

In Gortat v. Capala Brothers, Inc., the plaintiffs alleged that they were denied wages, including overtime compensation, throughout…
Continue Reading No Fees For You: Second Circuit Holds Expert Fees Are Not Recoverable Under FLSA

Authored by Steve Shardonofsky

In the beginning, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Genesis Healthcare that an FLSA case is moot when the plaintiff accepts an offer of full relief. As we noted in our previous blog, the decision left open, however, the question of what happens when the plaintiff affirmatively declines the offer or when the offer expires,…
Continue Reading Genesis Healthcare May Be Merely the First Book in Bible on Mooting Class/Collective Actions

Arkansas-Co-authored by Abad Lopez and Noah Finkel

The two-step “send notice now/worry later” approach to FLSA collective actions — in which courts approve notice to potential collective action members under the lenient standard but comfort defendant-employers with the bromide of “don’t worry, we can revisit the issue at the decertification stage under a more rigorous standard” — continues to leave…
Continue Reading Out of the Pizza Oven, Into the Fire: Any Way You Slice It, Lenient Standard at Conditional Certification Stage Doesn’t Cut It

Authored by Jessica Lieberman

The decision whether to reclassify employees whose exempt status is arguable can sometimes create something of a double bind for employers: reclassification should be the conservative approach, but it also can be risky if it is interpreted as evidence that the prior classification was wrong.  For this reason, employers may fear that reclassification aimed at reducing…
Continue Reading Taking a Pass on a “Reclass” Class (or Collective): Court Denies Reclassified Employees’ Certification Motion

Leading employment law firm Seyfarth Shaw has updated its definitive guide to the litigation of wage and hour lawsuits. Co-authored by three Seyfarth partners and edited by the chair of the firm’s national wage-hour practice, Wage & Hour Collective and Class Litigation is an essential resource for practitioners. The unique treatise provides insight into litigation strategy through all phases…
Continue Reading Seyfarth Shaw Attorneys Author the 2015 Update to the Definitive Guide to Litigating Wage & Hour Lawsuits

Co-authored by Richard Alfred and Patrick Bannon

2014 saw no letup in the deluge of wage and hour litigation.  Year-to-year, federal wage and hour lawsuits filed in federal courts increased by another 4.7%, bringing the total increase in federal court wage and hour cases over the past decade to more than 238%.  With the increase in litigation in this area,…
Continue Reading 2014 Wage Hour Wrap Up

Co-authored by Noah Finkel and Kara Goodwin

When negotiating a collective action notice to potential opt-in plaintiffs upon an order for or agreement to conditional certification, a defendant-employer often seeks to include language in the notice that if plaintiffs lose the case, they may be liable to the defendant for costs.  Not surprisingly, plaintiffs’ counsel usually resists including such a…

Continue Reading Full Disclosure To Plaintiffs: Failure To Prevail In An FLSA Case Could Cost You