Press & News

Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report noted on SHRM.org; J. Maatman Quoted
01/18/2008

"Wage-and-Hour Class Actions Spread Beyond California" posted on January 18, 2008 on SHRM.org; the website for the Society of Human Resource Management, notes: "Wage-and-hour class actions spread from California to other states in 2007, a trend that will grow in 2008, according to Jerry Maatman, a Seyfarth Shaw attorney in Chicago who co-chairs the firm’s complex litigation group. The most significant growth in wage-and-hour class actions occurred in the state courts of California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to Seyfarth Shaw’s 2008 Annual Class Action Litigation Report, which Maatman edited. “We are at the front end of a wave” of state law class actions beyond California, Maatman said in a Jan. 16, 2008, interview.

“People read about these awards and think about them,” Maatman noted. “Success begets copycats,” and many states have favorable conditions for wage-and-hour class actions. He said that Florida has “a very litigious environment.” In fact, the report stated that “the U.S. district courts for the southern and middle districts of Florida experience more wage-and-hour filings than any other federal jurisdiction.” Maatman attributed this partly to the abundance of minimum wage service industry jobs in central and southern Florida. Maatman described the plaintiffs’ bar in New Jersey and New York as “sophisticated and activist” and said that both states have “very plaintiff-friendly damages and remedies.” Maatman also expects more class actions in 2008 under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act because of a “more activist” Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). “Corporate counsel and executives are kept up at night in fear of lawsuits by employees,” he remarked. In light of the growing number of class actions brought against employers, Maatman said, “a good HR department couldn’t be more important.”