Court Denies Conditional Certification of Proposed Class of Retail Representatives

By Greg Mersol on November 30, 2012 Posted in FLSA, Retail

We’ve written several times in the past about the two-step procedure now in vogue for the handling certification of collective actions under section 16(b) of the FLSA. Under that procedure, a plaintiff first moves for “conditional certification,” which, despite its name, means only that the court is authorizing notice to the potential class members, and … Continue Reading

Another Court Finds Rule 23 State Law Class Actions Incompatible With FLSA Collective Actions

By Greg Mersol on July 1, 2011 Posted in FLSA, Overtime Claims, Rule 23, Wage and Hour

We’ve written several times this year about the wide split in authority regarding whether a plaintiff in a wage and hour case may bring both a collective action under the FLSA and a Rule 23 class action with respect to claimed parallel violations of state law. Apart from concerns over the management of simultaneous “opt-in” … Continue Reading

Preliminary Certification Is Not The End

By Greg Mersol on August 31, 2010 Posted in Class Certification, Conditional Certification

Many courts today use the two-step procedure described in Lusardi v. Xerox Corp., 99 F.R.D. 89 (D.N.J.1983), to decide whether to certify potential classes under section 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under that procedure, the court the court looks at certification twice, first before much discovery is done, and again at the close … Continue Reading