Cortes v. Latina Media Ventures LLC
- Alison Nathan
- 1:18-cv-04449
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Cortes v. Latina Media, Judge Nathan approved an $8,000 settlement of alleged wage violations and awarded attorney fees and costs.
Michelle Cortes and Latina Media Ventures LLC, along with the other defendants, were affected by the court’s approval of the settlement; the case was then closed.
What happened
Cortes v. Latina Media Ventures LLC involved Michelle Cortes’s claims that the defendants violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. The parties reached a settlement after the lawsuit was filed.
The agreement provided $8,000 in total, including attorney fees and costs. The court found that Cortes would recover 62% of the value of her wage claim, excluding fees and costs, and that the settlement was reasonable in light of litigation risks and expenses.
Judge Alison J. Nathan approved the settlement in full, including $3,179.67 in attorney fees and $513 in costs. The court directed the clerk to enter judgment and close the case.
The detailed version
- Cortes v. Latina Media Ventures LLC · No. 1:18-cv-04449
- Alison Nathan
- Aug. 16, 2020
Background
Michelle Cortes sued Latina Media Ventures LLC and other defendants under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law. The parties later reported that they had reached a settlement and submitted the proposed agreement for court approval.
The agreement provided for a total payment of $8,000, including attorney fees and costs. Cortes’s counsel requested $3,179.67 in fees and expenses.
Settlement review
The court explained that FLSA settlements must be approved by a court or the Department of Labor. The court therefore considered whether the agreement was a fair and reasonable compromise rather than an improper waiver of statutory rights.
Cortes alleged that she was owed $12,965.48 in unpaid wages and liquidated damages, consisting of $1,290.43 in allegedly unlawful expense deductions and $11,675.05 in liquidated damages. The parties represented that the underlying wages had been paid but that the liquidated damages had not. The court stated that the settlement represented 62% of the value of Cortes’s claim, excluding attorney fees and costs.
The court found that recovery reasonable because of potential obstacles to prevailing at trial, including Cortes’s reluctance to testify, and the costs of litigation. The court also found acceptable a mutual provision against disparaging statements because it allowed truthful statements about the litigation.
Attorney fees and costs
The requested attorney fee represented one-third of the total settlement amount. The court noted that such an award is routinely approved in FLSA cases. It also used the lodestar method as a cross-check. The lodestar is an estimate of a reasonable fee based on a reasonable hourly rate multiplied by the reasonable number of hours worked. Here, the lodestar was $5,485, which exceeded the requested contingency fee, so the court approved the fee award. The court also found the proposed $513 in costs reasonable.
Ruling
The court approved the settlement agreement in full. The clerk was directed to enter judgment and close the case.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.