Wage and Hour/ Private Attorney General Act (PAGA)

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Judge Smith handled over 200 hundred Wage and Hour and/or PAGA cases during her tenure in a Complex Litigation assignment. For example:

• Employees sued national company providing helicopter emergency services for wage and hour and PAGA violations. After a phase 1 trial on whether certain Labor Code provisions exempted plaintiffs from meal and rest break requirements, the parties resolved the remaining liability issues for an award in excess of 100 million dollars.

• Wage and Hour and PAGA claims alleging failure to provide meal and rest breaks against:
o Fast food chain
o Chain of restaurants operating in Northern California
o National chain of nutritional products stores
o Grocery store chain operating in northern and southern California

• Wage and Hour claims against a transportation company. The case raised issues of preemption by federal law because of the nature of the business.