The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs overtime and other aspects of wage-and-hour workplace regulation, entitles prevailing plaintiffs’ lawyers to demand attorneys’ fees from defendants, but not vice versa; it’s a “one-way” fee-shift

Some attorneys who represent employers say plaintiffs attorneys are filing claims for small dollar amounts under the wage and hour provision of the federal law that require little litigation beyond filing a claim, then claiming fees sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars. Another tactic, defense attorneys say, is dragging out the litigation to pad their fees.

“It’s a hijacking,” said Mark Cheskin, a defense-side labor and employment lawyer and partner at Hogan & Hartson in Miami. “There’s a whole cottage industry of plaintiff attorneys who are doing nothing but these cases.”

“It’s a volume practice,” said Paul Lopez, a partner at Tripp Scott in Fort Lauderdale. “They use the same forms [for every client] and are doing cut-and-paste jobs.”…

In a quickly settled case, the attorney fees generally seem like small potatoes to the employer, defense attorneys say, even though the fee may be 10 to 20 times the amount paid to the plaintiff.

However, claimants’ lawyers respond that business defendants often underrate the amount of time needed to prepare the cases. “‘They’re wrong, and there’s nothing out of control at all,’ said Donald Jaret, a Miami attorney with a substantial FLSA practice. ‘They always have complained, and they always will.'”

Lawyers say some judges have been policing fees more closely lately:

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno rejected Donald Jaret’s request for $16,000 in fees on a $315 claim that was settled weeks after the claim was filed.

In his order, Moreno wrote that the claim “shocks the conscience of the court. … This strategy of ‘shaking down’ defendants with nightmarishly expensive litigation in pursuit of attorney fees must not be rewarded.”

That case, entitled Goss v. Killian Oaks House of Learning, was cited last year by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp in denying a lawyer’s fee request in a case against the Rag Shop of Hollywood, Fla. (Jessica M. Walker, “Are FLSA Suits Too-Lucrative Labors for Plaintiffs Attorneys?”, Miami Daily Business Review, Dec. 16). More on overtime and FLSA litigation: PoL, this site.

Filed under: loser pays, workplace