Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
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Chicago Tribune Reports: “Debt Collectors Pushing to Get Their Day in Court — More aggressive strategies fill court dockets, result in mistaken identities”
The Chicago Tribune Reports that aggressive debt collectors are clogging the Cook Courts with many new debt claims and that their poor record keeping practices and other missteps are resulting in judgments sometimes entering for debts that have already been repaid. You can read the full article by clicking here.
Federal District Court in Illinois Authorizes Class Notice in Warehouse Worker Overtime Litigation
The holiday season is a busy time for many corporations and particularly for those tied to the retail industry, increased holiday business usually means that employees have to work longer hours to keep up with consumer demands. Our Aurora overtime attorneys came across a case that illustrates what can happen when employers fail to compensate employees who work extra hours during such times of increased workflow.
In Nunes v. Chicago Import Inc. Plaintiffs worked for Defendant as warehouse laborers responsible for loading and unloading merchandise from delivery trucks and keeping the warehouse organized. In performing these duties, Plaintiffs routinely worked over forty hours per week, and worked seven days a week during the month of December. Plaintiffs were paid a flat rate of $300.00 per week for the first three weeks of the month, and were paid $400.00 for the fourth week. They were paid an additional $50.00 per week in December, but never received hourly or overtime wages for their services. Plaintiffs then filed suit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), and asked the Court to issue an Order to Authorize Notice to Similarly Situated Persons under FLSA Section 216(b).
The Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion, holding that it was proper to leniently review the pleadings at this early stage of the litigation. As such, the five sworn declarations submitted by the Plaintiffs established that the representative and pending class members were sufficiently similarly situated to proceed with a class action. Defendants made objections that the proposed notice was too broad, and should not include administrative or executive staff. The Court agreed with Defendant and ordered adjustments to the form of the notice to exclude such employees, but otherwise found in favor of the Plaintiffs and granted their motion to authorize notice.
Video On Various Well Worn Frauds, Scams and Tricks Used By Automobile Dealers
Although it is a bit hokey the below video provides useful information on various well worn automobile dealer scams and tricks and how consumers can avoid them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3-U35G7Tg
If you have already fallen victim to any of these scams our Chicago lemon law and auto fraud lawyers may be able to assist you.
NPR Reports: “Thinly Veiled: Lawsuit Over Steamy Rihanna Video Sparks Debate On Copycat Culture”
NPR reports on a very interesting recently filed law suit regarding allegations that the pop singer Rhianna’s latest video crosses the line an plagiarizes the photo images of David LaChapelle and thus violates copyright law. The story states:
Fashion photographer David LaChapelle is known for staging photo shoots with lots of bright colors, outrageous costumes, and sexy, surreal images. …
When compared side-by-side, the video does bear striking similarities to the photos LaChapelle claims were plagiarized. In once scene, Rihanna lies semi-nude on a table, surrounded by reporters in clown wigs. The corresponding LaChapelle photo depicts a woman lying in a hospital bed, also half-naked and also surrounded by clowns in business attire.
In his complaint against Rihanna, LaChapelle alleges, “Defendants are wrongly implying to the public that plaintiff was involved in the creation of the Music Video or that plaintiff has endorsed, approved or otherwise consented to its creation.”
You can read or listen to the entire story by clicking here.
Northern District of Illinois Rules that State Law Overtime Claims Not Precluded by Prior Dismissal of FLSA Class-Action
When dealing with class-action wage and hour disputes, defendants will try to get the court to dismiss claims by any means that they can, and there are a variety of legal defenses that allow them to do so. At DiTommaso Lubin, our overtime lawyers are familiar with all of the tricks of the trade, so to speak, so they were interested to discover a case that illuminates just one of these many tools that is utilized by defendants to escape liability.
In Anyere v. Wells Fargo Co. Inc, Plaintiffs were current and former employees of Defendant and worked as credit managers who provided customers primarily with loan consolidation services. Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit alleging overtime violations under Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because they were required to work during lunch, on weekends, and late into the night on a regular basis. Plaintiffs also alleged that Defendant “verbally disciplined employees for logging more than forty hours per week” and would adjust employees’ time records to stay under the overtime threshold. In response to these allegations, Defendant moved to dismiss the action on the basis of collateral estoppel due to a previous lawsuit filed against Defendant in California for the same overtime violations.
The Court dismissed the FLSA claims for nationwide relief based upon issue preclusion — the California-filed class-action was dismissed because the members of the proposed class were not similarly situated. However, the Court maintained the statewide action because the prior case did not contemplate an Illinois-only class-action and therefore could not have been litigated previously.
Northern District of Illinois Denies FRCP 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss Brought Against Dialysis Technicians
Because we focus on large-scale overtime class-action lawsuits, the attorneys here at DiTommaso Lubin have helped clients from many different fields recover their unpaid wages. We think it is important for all of our potential clients out there to understand what kinds of issues arise in wage and hour cases, so our Evanston overtime attorneys are always on the look-out for new decisions. In fact, our lawyers discovered a federal case in the Northern District of Illinois that involves workers in the medical industry.
In Howard v. Renal Life Link Inc., Plaintiffs worked for Defendant as dialysis technicians and routinely worked over forty hours each week, but Defendant allegedly deducted any overtime worked and paid Plaintiffs for only forty hours. The named Plaintiff complained to Defendant that she was not being paid properly for all of the time that she had worked, but Defendant allegedly ignored these complaints and continued to deduct any time worked over forty hours each week. Plaintiffs then filed suit alleging that these working hour deductions constituted violations of both the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In response, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 12(b)(6) alleging that Plaintiff failed to supply sufficient factual evidence in the complaint in order to meet the requirements of FRCP 23.
Defendant’s based their argument that Plaintiff failed to allege enough facts because the complaint contained allegations based “upon information and belief” instead of hard evidence. The Court found this argument unpersuasive, however, because FRCP 8 allows such allegations as long as there is sufficient detail in the complaint to make the claims facially plausible. In denying Defendant’s motion to dismiss, the Court held that the issues brought up by Defendant were properly analyzed at the class certification phase of the case, and were not properly brought in a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.