Excerpt: ...proposes the following deductions/allocations: Attorney Fees: $50,000.00 Litigation Costs: $11,859.46 Plaintiff Enhancement: $7,500.00 Admin. Costs: $5,250.00 LWDA PAGA Penalties: $3,750.00 Class size: 47 Net to employees: $71,640.54 All class members: $66,871.01 (67% 1099) Wage sub-class: $3,519.58 (67% 1099) PAGA employees: $1,250.00 (100% 1099) There has been complete satisfaction of the notice requirement, and zero objections or opt- outs. As...

Excerpt: ...iff's application for preliminary approval of a settlement reached in the action. The referenced litigation is slated to resolve with no monetary benefit of any kind to the class members, but with an agreement from defendant to modify its advertising to exclude the following phrases: (1) “no negative side efforts”; (2) “no side effects”; and (3) “100% safe”. In addition to this injunctive relief, defendant has agreed to pay plaintiff ...

Excerpt: ...ction. Before the Court this day is plaintiff's application for preliminary approval of a settlement reached in the action. The referenced litigation is slated to resolve for a gross settlement amount of $525,000.00. From there, counsel proposes the following deductions/allocations: Attorney Fees: $175,000.00 Litigation Costs: $20,000.00 Plaintiff Enhancement: $15,750.00 Admin. Costs: $8,000.00 Class size: 213 Net to employees: $306,250.00 Class ...

Excerpt: ...unt for overtime hours. Overtime is 1.5x the “regular rate,” but the law has not clarified what “regular rate” actually means. Plaintiff contends that overtime should have been calculated at 1.5x true hourly rate PLUS 1.5x some value associated with the per diem (even though working overtime had no impact on the lodging per diem). The operative pleading is the original Complaint, which contains three causes of action:  1st COA: failure...

Excerpt: ...tions filed by plaintiff, seeking class member information from non-parties who used defendant's services. As plaintiff states, this is not a suit seeking any relief or remedy against these non-parties, but instead is a suit focused exclusively on the credit reporting agency who reportedly took a short cut. The motions will have to be continued for further briefing on the following salient concerns. First, as noted in the Rutter Guide on Civil Pr...

Excerpt: ... follows: “I KNOWINGLY AND VOLUNTARILY AGREE TO SUBMIT AND SETTLE ANY DISPUTE, CONTROVERSY OR CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO MY EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP WITH 14 WEST COAST LLC TO ARBITRATION AS DESCRIBED IN THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT SECTION OF THIS HANDBOOK … I ALSO AGREE THAT I WILL ONLY ASSERT INDIVIDUAL CLAIMS AND WILL NOT ASSERT CLASS ACTION OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION CLAIMS.” The referenced employee handbook, according to Alaina Cruz...

Excerpt: ...as a putative class, asserting that these violations were commonplace for all non-exempt employees. Shortly thereafter she filed a First Amended Complaint, adding a cause of action for civil PAGA penalties. Following discovery and extensive document review, the parties participated in mediation sessions. Despite a number of issues, the parties resolved the matter with a GSA of $560,000.00, with the typical deductions/allocations. The PAGA Portion...

Excerpt: ...M did not provide an unqualified admission to RFAs 9-11. As such, Tokio requested from BFM a verified response to the following form interrogatory: Is your response to each request for admission served with these interrogatories an unqualified admission? If not, for each response that is not an unqualified admission: a) state the number of the request; b) state all facts upon which you base your response; c) state the names, ADDRESSES, and teleph...

Excerpt: ...wage. 2. Wages and Overtime Subclass. All Class Members who were not compensated for all hours worked for Defendants at the required rates of pay, including for all hours worked in excess of eight in a day and/or forty in a week. 3. Meal Period Subclass. All Class Members who were subject to Defendants' policy and/or practice of failing to provide unpaid 30-minute uninterrupted and duty-free meal periods or one hour of pay at the Class Member's r...

Excerpt: ...our violations. That pleading identified the prospective class as “all California citizens currently or formerly employed by Defendants as nonexempt employees in the State of California within four years prior to the filing of this action to the time the class is certified,” and a sub-class of “members who separated their employment with Defendants at any time within three years prior to the filing of this action to the time the class is ce...

Excerpt: ...Defendants in California in the past four years who were not covered by a CBA between Kindness and IBEW Local No. 47. (The union subclass has since been merged into the non-union subclass, as explained in counsel's recent supplemental filing.) The referenced litigation is slated to resolve for a gross settlement amount of $850,000.00. Counsel proposes the following deductions/allocations: Attorney Fees: $297,500.00 Litigation Costs: $35,000.00 Pl...

Excerpt: ...y three years. It began in March of 2018 with a putative class action suit filed in Alameda County by then plaintiff Tracy Reid and grew into five separate lawsuits in state and federal court throughout California. All of the representative plaintiffs came together for a global settlement, and in so doing agreed that the most efficient way to complete the resolution was to bring it to this Court. The resulting settlement was the product of severa...

Excerpt: ...ns/allocations: Attorney Fees: $50,000.00 Litigation Costs: $11,859.46 Plaintiff Enhancement: $7,500.00 Admin. Costs: $5,250.00 LWDA PAGA Penalties: $3,750.00 Class size: 47 Net to employees: $71,640.54 All class members: $66,871.01 (67% 1099) Wage sub-class: $3,519.58 (67% 1099) PAGA employees: $1,250.00 (100% 1099) There has been complete satisfaction of the notice requirement, and zero objections or opt- outs. As part of the settlement, defend...

Excerpt: ...ed expert consultant, specifically employing the services of the OCSD. Rebecca Latta is a certified arborist and tree risk assessor, with 28 years of experience in horticulture, arboriculture and water management for municipal, utility, residential and commercial properties. Review of her cv suggests that the bulk of her expert services manifest in site inspections and written opinions, though she has “provided 3 depositions and testified in 2 ...

Excerpt: ...justment program which, under Civil Code §1795.92, must be communicated to all owners of Kia vehicles with the same sunroof. Plaintiff pleads the claim as one for an unfair or unlawful business practice under B&P Code §17200. Kia calls its program a “goodwill gesture” rather than an actual adjustment to its formal written warranty. Class certification was denied in the related action (Kondash v. Kia Motors America, Inc., Case No. 1:15-cv-50...

Excerpt: ...laim, the trial court must review and approve any settlement thereof. Procedurally, the trial court must confirm that plaintiff satisfied all of the pre-filing and post-filing requirements. For example, before the lawsuit was filed, plaintiff was required to give the LWDA pre-filing notice via its online portal, within one year of the offense, “of the specific provisions of this code alleged to have been violated, including the facts and theori...

Excerpt: ...e operative pleading contains two causes of action: one based on consumer misrepresentation (Civil Code §1750 et seq), and the other on the Patient's Bill of Rights (H&S Code §1430(b). Before the Court are a myriad of discovery disputes, summarily described as follows:  Defendants' motion for a protective order to stay a managing agent deposition;  Plaintiff's motion to compel the very same deposition;  Plaintiff's motion to compel the...

Excerpt: ...reof. Procedurally, the trial court must confirm that plaintiff satisfied all of the pre- and post-filing requirements. For example, before the lawsuit was filed, plaintiff was required to give the LWDA pre-filing notice via its online portal, within one year of the offense, “of the specific provisions of this code alleged to have been violated, including the facts and theories to support the alleged violation.” The notice must contain at lea...

Excerpt: ... Although a demurrer is ordinarily limited to matters found within the four corners of the challenged pleading, in the case of a plea in abatement under sub (c), a trial court will often consider matters outside the four corners that are subject to judicial notice. See CCP §430.30; Bistawros v. Greenberg (1987) 189 Cal.App.3d 189, 191-192. Pursuant to Evid. Code §452(d), a trial court may take judicial notice of court records. Here, defendant p...

Excerpt: ...” or “constructively” commenced in a timely manner. This would appear to be beyond the scope of what section 473(b) authorizes, with the relief being sought here essentially reexamining the final determination of the merits of the case. To illustrate, Civil Code 8460(a) has been described as a kind of statute of limitations. (See Petersen v. W. T. Grant Co. (1974) 41 Cal.App.3d 217, 219; Automatic Sprinkler Corp. v. Southern Cal. Edison Co....

Excerpt: ...” or “constructively” commenced in a timely manner. This would appear to be beyond the scope of what section 473(b) authorizes, with the relief being sought here essentially reexamining the final determination of the merits of the case. To illustrate, Civil Code 8460(a) has been described as a kind of statute of limitations. (See Petersen v. W. T. Grant Co. (1974) 41 Cal.App.3d 217, 219; Automatic Sprinkler Corp. v. Southern Cal. Edison Co....

Excerpt: ...o compel further responses to RPDs and SRogs. The parties have previously attended an Informal Discovery Conference and exchanged private financial information with an eye toward a strategic settlement. Neither avenue succeeded. Production of Documents The party seeking documents in an opponent's possession, custody or control must describe with reasonably particularity the specific document, or category of documents, sought. In addition, he/she ...

Excerpt: ...rse necessary business expenses. After extensive investigation and an exchange of information and documents, including defendant providing a large volume of documents and data points via excel spreadsheets, Plaintiff was able to evaluate the facts of the case and the veracity, strength, scope, and value of the claims. The parties eventually settled the case with the aid of a professional mediator for the gross amount of $1,500,000.00 – subject ...

Excerpt: ...r extensive investigation and an exchange of information and documents, including defendant providing a large volume of documents and data points via excel spreadsheets, plaintiff was able to evaluate the facts of the case and the veracity, strength, scope, and value of the claims. The parties eventually settled the case with the aid of a professional mediator for the gross amount of $307,626.00 – subject to the following allocations:  Attor...

Excerpt: ...  Number of pay periods: 1,518 o 11/22/16  02/19/17 o 11/15/19  10/26/20  Realistic estimation: $178,700.00  Settlement amount: $57,000.00  Attorney Fees: $19,166.66  Litigation costs: $11,000.00  Administrator costs: $1,400.00  Plaintiff enhancement: $1,500.00  Net Penalty: o To LWDA: $18,081.25 o To employees: $6,027.09  Ave. penalty per employee: $91.00 Scope of Settlement and Release The operative pleading her...