Recent Successes

It cannot be denied. We are very proud of our successful cases. Some of our more notable ones are:

Employment Litigation:

We have successfully litigated a number of cases involving insurance companies which have misclassified their claims adjusters as exempt employees who did not receive overtime compensation. Among some of our more notable results are:

Gutierrez vs. State Farm Insurance - State Farm paid $135 million to settle this case.

Bednar vs. Allstate Insurance - A settlement of $120 million was paid.

Bristol West Insurance Company - $18 million.

CNA Insurance Company - $33 million

Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company - $12.3 million

Of course, it is not just insurance companies who misclassify their employees. As an example, we successfully litigated and resolved cases against these companies:

Toyota Motor Sales USA - Various Toyota companies misclassified white collar employees as “administrators”. A settlement of $7.7 million compensated these employees for the overtime they had worked.

Fulton v. Cisco Systems, Inc. - This class action was filed on behalf of technical writers, who were misclassified as exempt employees. The trial court has approved a $6.7 million settlement.

Sometimes, employers improperly require employees to pay for the employer’s business expenses, or fail to reimburse employees for items such as mileage, cell phone use, etc. A recent settlement is:

Oprychal/Ortman v. New York Life Ins. Co. - In this case, a life insurance company failed to reimburse its life insurance sales employees for numerous expenses. In addition, it required them to pay for such things as use of a desk, photocopies, etc. The United States District Court in Los Angeles recently approved a $10 million settlement of this matter.

Another example of this type of problem is Van Heyn v. WMC Mortgage. In this case, one group of employees were required to have deductions taken from their commissions to contribute to the wages of other employees. The case has received preliminary approval of a $3 million settlement.

In today’s economy, employers sometimes “step over the line” in their attempt to squeeze every minute of time from their employees. Problems arise with employees working “off the clock”, being required or permitted to perform work before or after they have clocked in, or during their rest or meal breaks. One such case recently settled under unusual circumstances:

Parris v. Lowes

This case involves over 50,000 hourly employees. Often, employees worked “off the clock”, and did not receive any pay for it. Our motion to certify this matter as a class action was denied by the trial court. But, we did not permit the case to die at that stage. We appealed the denial and won a reversal in the Court of Appeal, which ordered the trial court to grant class action status to this case.

The reversal of the decision on certification of the class put the case back on track, and put the defendant in jeopardy in light of a pending trial. This case has settled for $29.5 million. Settlement checks will be mailed early 2010.

Other Significant Litigation:

Jane Doe vs. Unnamed Private High School

By agreement, the actual names of the parties in this case are kept confidential. Our client, a high school junior, was seduced by one of her teachers and had one sexual encounter with him. Prior to that, the school was warned that something improper was developing, but took no action. On the eve of trial, the school agreed to pay our client $2 million to compensate her for the emotional distress she suffered.

Schenk vs. Jenny Craig, Inc.

This consumer class action, arising from Jenny Craig Inc.’s failure to disclose the fact that a huge number of its participants ultimately gained back any weight they may have lost, resulted in a settlement valued at approximately $75 million.

In addition to the above, we have participated in consumer class actions cases as litigation involving the mislabeling of computer monitor screens, and the sale of defective mini-blinds, “bait and switch” in the sale of computer products, etc.

From wherever you are in California, call us toll free at 866-959-9552 or contact our offices in Los Angeles or Orange County by e-mail to arrange a free consultation.