Wells v. Universal Protection Service, LLC
- Sarah Cave
- 1:20-cv-07041
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Wells v. Universal Protection Service, LLC, Judge Cave required settlement documents and fee records before reviewing the proposed Fair Labor Standards Act settlement.
Jennifer Wells, her counsel, and Universal Protection Service, LLC, because the court required additional settlement and fee documentation before completing its review.
What happened
Wells v. Universal Protection Service, LLC is a wage-and-hour case under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The parties asked the court to review and approve their proposed settlement, which included attorney fees and costs.
The parties had not provided the plaintiff’s lawyers’ billing records or documentation supporting their costs. The settlement agreement also had not yet been signed by the defendant.
Judge Cave ordered the plaintiff’s counsel to submit the billing and cost records, and ordered the parties to provide a fully signed settlement agreement, by April 16, 2021. The order did not approve or reject the proposed settlement.
The detailed version
- Wells v. Universal Protection Service, LLC · No. 1:20-cv-07041
- Sarah Cave
- Apr. 9, 2021
Background
This wage-and-hour case involves claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The parties consented to Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave’s jurisdiction to review their proposed settlement. They filed a joint letter-motion asking for approval and submitted a proposed settlement agreement. The parties stated that the defendant had not yet signed the agreement.
Attorney Fees and Costs
The proposed settlement included an allocation of attorney fees and costs to the plaintiff’s counsel. The court explained that, when an FLSA settlement includes attorney fees, it must evaluate whether the requested fees are reasonable. To make that evaluation, counsel must provide contemporaneous billing records showing, for each attorney, the date, time spent, and work performed, along with documentation of costs.
The parties had not submitted the plaintiff’s counsel’s billing records or cost documentation. The court therefore stated that it could not complete its review of the proposed settlement.
Order
By April 16, 2021, the court ordered: (1) the plaintiff’s counsel to submit billing records and cost documentation supporting the requested attorney fees and costs; and (2) the parties to provide a fully executed settlement agreement. The order did not state that the settlement was approved or rejected.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.