Employment Defense Litigation

SITUATION
A national vending services and office food solutions provider needed legal representation in an employment lawsuit in California.

PROBLEM
A former employee of our client brought a California PAGA (Private Attorney’s General Act) lawsuit against our client.  PAGA is a unique statute that allows “aggrieved employees” to bring actions against their employers for civil penalties on behalf of themselves, other employees, and the State of California.  The employee in this case sought to represent hundreds of other employees for alleged Labor Code violations, including unpaid wages, unpaid overtime, missed rest and meal periods, and failure to reimburse business expenses.

SOLUTION
We pursued an aggressive defense strategy that included a motion to compel arbitration and other written motions that shielded our client from discovery and protected their employees’ personal contact information.  This prevented plaintiff’s counsel from contacting other employees and increasing the potential exposure for our client.

BENEFITS
Our aggressive approach persuaded plaintiff’s counsel to agree to limited informal discovery and confidential mediation rather than continuing litigation.  At mediation, we negotiated a favorable settlement that secured a broad release for our client to prevent other employees from bringing lawsuits alleging similar claims.

For more information, contact Alexander R. Safyan at 310-299-5500 or [email protected] .