Compensatory Award Was About $121,000; Plaintiff Had Requested $830,000 In Fees.
As reported by Debra Cassens Weiss in a November 28, 2017 post on the ABA Journal, a former legal secretary Noemi Bernal—plaintiff in an overtime dispute with her former law firm—obtained a jury compensatory award against former employers (J.J. Little & Associates, Law Office Administrators, and James J. Little) to the tune of around $121,000 (inclusive of interest) in the Los Angeles County Superior Court based on failure to pay for her overtime work. (Among other things, plaintiff claimed that she worked 20 hour days during trials and was expected to respond to texts/calls on nights and weekends, but was apparently not paid for this extra work.) She then moved to recoup $830,000 in fees based on statutory fee-shifting statutes. Judge Barbara Scheper instead awarded fees of $277,000 to plaintiff, apportioning out work on unsuccessful claims and rejecting the request for a positive fee multiplier.