Co-authored by Richard Alfred and Patrick Bannon
Is a class action permitted if each class member’s damages would have to be proven separately rather than measured on a class-wide basis?
The Supreme Court’s 5 – 4 majority opinion today in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend raises this fundamental question. The implications for wage and hour class and collective actions
Co-authored by Richard Alfred and Kevin Young
Since the Supreme Court decided Dukes v. Wal-Mart in June 2011, litigants have wrestled over its impact on wage-hour class and collective actions. Plaintiffs typically argue that Dukes should be limited to its context—a mega Title VII discrimination case brought as a Rule 23(b)(2) class action. Defendant-employers respond—correctly in our view—that the principles
Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Tells Wage and Hour Plaintiffs to Put Up With Dukes
Co-authored by Laura Reasons, Giselle Donado, and Noah Finkel
In an opinion likely to make it more difficult for wage-hour plaintiffs to certify a class action and maintain certification of a collective action, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the Western District of Wisconsin’s decertification decision in Espenscheid v. DirectSat USA, LLC on the grounds that trial was not manageable
Authored by Rachel M. Hoffer
We’ve all heard the oft-cited statistic that women in the U.S. earn 77 cents for every dollar paid their male counterparts, despite the passage of laws targeted to remedy this disparity. For the third time in four years, Congressional Democrats have introduced a bill intended to give the Equal Pay Act of 1963 sharper teeth.
Continue Reading Sex Bomb: Democrats Push Paycheck Fairness Act–Again
Co-authored by: Jeremy W. Stewart and Kyle Petersen
On January 10, 2013, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin issued an order denying the plaintiffs’ motion for class and collective action certification of unpaid meal period claims in Boelk, et al. v. AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., et al., No. 3:12-cv-0040-bbc
Co-Authored by Richard Alfred, Patrick Bannon and Jessica Schauer Lieberman
In the year and a half since the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, litigants, courts and even the Supreme Court itself have continued to analyze the legal standard for certification of Rule 23 class actions. The Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday
Continue Reading Supreme Court Considers Evidence Needed for Certification of Broad(band) Class
Co-authored by Richard Alfred and Kevin Young
It has been more than a year since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, and its impact on wage and hour class actions remains hotly debated. While plaintiffs’ attorneys have argued that the decision is limited substantively to discrimination cases and procedurally to Rule 23(b)(2) class actions
Co-Authored by: Jeffrey A. Berman and Anthony J. Musante
On July 2, 2012, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court ruling denying class certification to a group of newspaper carriers claiming they were misclassified as independent contractors. In Sotelo v. Medianews Group, Inc., the Court of Appeal concluded that plaintiffs’ proposed class of newspaper carriers could not
Continue Reading Court of Appeal Delivers On Newspaper Carrier Misclassification Case
Authored by Noah Finkel and Abad Lopez
Last month, a federal district court in Maryland rejected a proposed FLSA settlement as unreasonable based on the amount of the proposed attorney’s fees. In Gionfriddo v. Zinc, et al., the Court compared the amount the individual plaintiffs were to recover ($15,000.18) to the proposed attorney’s fees ($100,000), and found the disproportionate
Continue Reading Should Disproportionate Attorney’s Fees Doom Proposed FLSA Settlements?
Authored by: Noah Finkel, Brett Bartlett, Andrew Paley and Richard Alfred
Members of Seyfarth Shaw’s Wage and Hour Litigation Practice Group have authored Wage & Hour Collective and Class Litigation, the first-of-its kind treatise on wage and hour litigation. Published by American Lawyer Media’s Law Journal Press, the 912-page volume is the most comprehensive guide published to
Continue Reading Seyfarth Shaw “Writes the Book” on Wage-Hour Litigation