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

internship blog image 8.jpgCo-authored by Robert Whitman and Adam Smiley

While most New Yorkers rode out last weekend’s blizzard by binge watching television or enjoying playoff football, three Second Circuit judges apparently spent their time more productively, as the court on Monday issued an amended decision in its landmark ruling from last summer on unpaid internships.

As we have previously reported, the…
Continue Reading Second Circuit Leaves Interns in the Cold—Again

Authored by Noah Finkel

As noted by this blog on several occasions, including most recently here, the U.S. Supreme Court and several appellate courts have grappled with the question of whether and to what extent a defendant facing a class or collective action can moot a case by offering a plaintiff complete relief under Rule 68 or in a…
Continue Reading Reports of the Death of the Mootness Maneuver Are Greatly Exaggerated

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

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

Authored by Alex Passantino

It’s the week before Christmas, and we’ve accepted our mission,
The annual wage hour “sum-up” composition.
And to start it all off, we’ve got something nice,
‘Cause the Supreme Court addressed wage and hour stuff twice.

The year started out with the first one of those;
As Justice Scalia answered “What counts as clothes?”
With…
Continue Reading Integral Clothes and Mistletoes: 2014 Year in Review

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

Authored by Adam J. Smiley

Nothing beats the drama of Game 7.  The New York Rangers provided plenty of it last night in downing the Pittsburgh Penguins to advance to the conference finals.  Off the ice, a group of interns for Madison Square Garden — home of the Rangers — who sued MSG for FLSA and NYLL violations have learned…
Continue Reading Victory for Madison Square Garden On And Off the Ice

Co-authored by Coby M. Turner and Laura J. Maechtlen

California is bringing Comcast home—last week, California employers were the beneficiary of some down-home wisdom coming out of San Francisco. 

Giving some sage advice to the wage and hour community, Judge Alsup in Lou et. al. v. Ma Laboratories, Inc., denied conditional and class certification to a broad class of…
Continue Reading Ma (Labs) Knows Best—California Court Uses Comcast To Reject Certification Of An Off-The-Clock Claim