Were you surprised that this FLSA violation happened to a company that works in the legal industry and works with attorneys and law firms every day?

Notice in this case that it was only after the defendants figured out that they had wrongly misclassified the customer service specialistsand, in fact, corrected the matterthat the plaintiffs discovered the error and filed the class action to recover damages when they were misclassified. Is that fair?

Notice also that what may have started as one person, Thomas Bednar, having a single claim against the defendant turned into a full-blown class action costing the firm $2.8 million dollars in damages alone. Did it surprise you how much the case was settled for and how quickly it was litigated?

Bednar et al v. CT Corporation, No. 02-3646 JMR/JSM (D. Minn. filed Sept. 16, 2002) West's Minnesota Jury Verdict Reports Thomas Bednar worked for CT Corporation System as a customer specialist. CT is a nationwide legal document service company. The company offers various services to attorneys and law firms and has offices in several states. There are approximately300 customer specialists employed by CT. Until August of 2002, the customer specialists were compensated on a salary or "exempt" basis, and as such, were ineligible for overtime pay for any hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. After August 2002, customer service specialists were reclassified as nonexempt. In 2003, Bednar filed a class action complaint against CT in a Minnesota federal district court, alleging the classification of customer specialists as exempt violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 207(a)(1) and various state wage and hour laws. The complaint sought reimbursement for unpaid overtime, liquidated damages, and an award of attorney's fees and costs. The parties agreed to settle the case on December 15, 2003 for a total payment not to exceed $2,825,000, including attorney's fees. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, each member of the class who chose to participate in the settlement would receive back overtime pay based on the actual excess hours that individual worked, in addition to a payment of $4066. The additional payment was deemed to cover any potential state law violations, liquidated damages, and various other damages.