Rule 23 Certification

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Co-authored by Nadia Bandukda and Noah Finkel

In an exempt status misclassification case involving 51 different IT job titles, a federal district judge in California has ruled that the proposed class members perform duties that are too divergent to justify ultimate collective under the FLSA or class treatment under Rule 23(b).

The company here divided employees in several “Bands” to…
Continue Reading The Other Area 51? Court Holds 51 Job Titles, Even In Same Area, Are Too Alien From Another for Class Treatment

Co-authored by Sheryl Skibbe and Kevin Young

With last week’s denial of the plaintiffs’ request for a full panel rehearing in Wang v. Chinese Daily News [here], the Ninth Circuit reminds us that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Walmart v. Dukes provides valuable ammunition against wage and hour class actions of all sizes.

In March 2004, three employees…
Continue Reading Big or Small, Ninth Circuit Confirms That Dukes Must Be Considered in All Wage and Hour Class Actions

Co-authored by Brandon McKelvey, Tim Nelson, and Robb McFadden

If class certification is denied, can a plaintiff’s lawyer simply find a new representative plaintiff, file a new class action, and take another stab at class certification? 

This was the situation WinCo Foods faced after defeating class certification in Gales v. WinCo Foods [here], an assistant manager…
Continue Reading How to Kill a Copycat Class Action

SDNY.jpgAuthored by Robert Whitman 

The lawsuit against Hearst Corporation on behalf of interns who claim they should have been paid as employees got a jolt of life last week when the judge supervising the case certified the class certification issue for an immediate appeal (See here). 

As we previously reported (here), Judge Harold…

Continue Reading New Hope for Hearst Interns Seeking Class Status

Ninth Circuit.jpgCo-authored by Andrew Paley and Patrick Ryan

As we posted last month [here], district courts throughout the country have indicated that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend makes it harder for plaintiffs to pursue wage and hour claims as class actions.   Earlier this week, the Ninth Circuit issued a decision that some commentators have…

Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Reverses Denial of Class Certification Where Determining Damages is A Purely Mechanical Exercise

Second Circuit Seal.jpgCo-authored by Timothy F. Haley and Noah A. Finkel

We’ve known since the Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in General Telephone Company of Southwest v. Falcon that in determining whether the prerequisites for class certification have been satisfied, a court must engage in a “rigorous analysis.”  But what does that mean?  According to the Second Circuit, at a minimum it means…

Continue Reading SECOND CIRCUIT PUTS TEETH INTO CLASS-ACTION “RIGOROUS ANALYSIS” REQUIREMENT

logo_seyfarth_shaw.gifCo-authored by Richard Alfred and Patrick Bannon

Did the Supreme Court’s decision last month in Comcast v. Behrend make it harder for plaintiffs to pursue wage and hour claims as class actions?  An early consensus says “Yes.” 

As we reported previously [read here], the Supreme Court itself, in Ross v. RBS Citizens, N.A., immediately applied Comcast to a…

Continue Reading Early Consensus: Courts Rely on Comcast v. Behrend In Refusing To Allow Wage and Hour Cases To Proceed As Class Actions

supreme court.jpgCo-authored by Richard Alfred and Jessica Schauer Lieberman

The Supreme Court issued a groundbreaking ruling today in Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk that brings into clearer focus the fundamental differences between FLSA collective actions and Rule 23 class actions.  The Court, in a 5-4 decision, held that the mere fact that the named plaintiff in an FLSA collective action asserts…

Continue Reading Genesis of A Clearer Distinction Between Class and Collective Actions? Supreme Court Decides Symczyk.

Ninth Circuit.jpgBy Noah Finkel and Richard Alfred

We have long argued that the best path for defeating a hybrid state law wage and hour claim is not through a motion to dismiss but by making a strong lack of superiority argument to defeat class certification.

It is therefore not surprising to us that the Ninth Circuit joined several other Circuits last…

Continue Reading Saving The Anti-Hybrid Arguments For the Certification Stage May Be The “Superior” Way To Defeat A State Law Wage-Hour Claim

supreme court.jpgCo-authored by Richard Alfred and Patrick Bannon

In a post last week, we predicted that the Supreme Court’s opinion in Comcast v. Behrend would have “monumental” implications for wage and hour class actions (read more here). Some of our readers, especially although not exclusively on the plaintiffs’ side interpreted the opinion much more narrowly. 

Exactly five days after issuing Comcast…

Continue Reading With the Speed of Broadband–Supreme Court Applies Comcast to Wage and Hour Case