Payne & Fears LLP has litigated and successfully resolved California and nationwide class actions with up to tens of thousands of alleged class members. We have litigated aggressively and creatively in superior court and federal district court, at the trial court level and on appeal. We have also efficiently tailored our approach to avoid expensive discovery and meet the needs of each client and case.
Statewide PAGA Claim Eliminated
Payne & Fears obtained an order striking the representative PAGA claims from a statewide wage-and-hour action, thus reducing size of the case from over 250,000 members to a mere handful of individual claims.
Five former employees sued Payne & Fears’ client, a large multistate retailer, for meal and rest period violations and related causes of action. Plaintiffs sought to certify a class of over 250,000 current and former employees, and also sought to maintain claims for PAGA...
Individual Releases Secured Low Settlement
We were retained as lead counsel in addition to insurance panel counsel to defend two related wage and hour class actions brought against an Orange County car wash owner. We mounted an aggressive strategy to reduce potential damages, including an audit of payroll and timekeeping records, individual interviews with over 60 putative class members to obtain declarations and releases in exchange for individual settlement payments, and training for all managers and supervisors. After sharing some information with plaintiff’s counsel...
Statewide Settlement of Class Action on Individual Basis
We represented an Orange County company in a class action lawsuit filed by a former inside sales representative, claiming that he and over 100 other individuals were misclassified as exempt from the overtime requirement. Given a significant risk of misclassification, and without timekeeping records, we worked with the company to conduct an analysis of any records that would show the hours sales representatives worked, including digital phone records, parking lot transponders, and company holiday schedules. ...
Favorable Resolution at Early Mediation for “Bonus Overtime” Class Action
Payne & Fears LLP represented a Bay Area transaction processing service center in a “bonus overtime” class action where the plaintiff alleged miscalculation of the overtime rate in violation of the California Labor Code. Despite the challenge of a nondiscretionary bonus program that supported plaintiff’s theory of the case, our team reached a favorable resolution at early mediation that resulted in a settlement payment of 2% of plaintiff’s demand.
Obtained Major Win in Widely Publicized Class Action
In late July, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ended a 23-year bid by a retired employee of the world's largest aerospace company to force the company's pension plan to retroactively recalculate decades of pension benefits she and other retirees commenced while working. The plaintiff, one of the original "Rosie the Riveters" who riveted planes during WWII, and who recently retired from making C-17s at the age of 95, claimed that her and other participants' pension benefits had been underpaid since at least 1989. In 2015, Payne...