Partners Kristopher Diulio and Brendan Ford and Associate Eduardo Dominguez recently obtained a favorable settlement during the trial in a Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) case in Kern County Superior Court.
PAGA is a California Labor Code provision that authorizes an employee and their attorneys to seek civil penalties from an employer on behalf of the State of California. Those penalties cover the employee making the PAGA claim and other aggrieved employees. Notably, this permits a form of representative action without many of the safeguards of a class action.
Although PAGA was amended this past summer, this action was filed before those amendments came into effect.
The plaintiff in this PAGA action sought penalties for alleged failure to comply with meal and rest break requirements, overtime pay, and associated claims. The employer is a franchise fast-food operator with multiple locations in central and southern California. The parties engaged in extensive discovery, motion practice, and cross-claims for over three years.
During several formal settlement conferences, the plaintiff and her attorneys demanded close to eight figures to resolve the claims. While engaging in discovery, the F&D team then moved to bifurcate the PAGA equitable claims from the potentially triable claims to a jury, which the Court granted. As the matter proceeded to a bench trial before the Court, the F&D team was confident they had marshaled evidence undermining the plaintiff’s claims. As the bench trial proceeded, settlement negotiations resumed—literally in the courtroom hallway.
Ultimately, the matter settled during the trial for a low six-figure amount, close to one-hundredth of a percent of what was demanded pre-trial.