Judge: Randall J. Sherman, Case: 2021-01188066, Date: 2022-09-09 Tentative Ruling

The tentative ruling is to continue the hearing on plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement to December 16, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.  Counsel must file supplemental papers addressing the court’s concerns (not fully revised papers that would have to be reread) no later than 16 days before the next hearing date.  Counsel must submit an amendment to the settlement agreement rather than any amended settlement agreement.  Counsel also must provide a red-lined version of any revised papers.  Counsel also should provide the court with an explanation of how the pending issues were resolved, with references to any corrections to the settlement agreement and the class notice, rather than with just a supplemental declaration or brief that simply asserts the issues have been resolved.

The motion fails to provide the estimated high and low payments to be paid to class members, information that would enable the court to better evaluate the reasonableness of the settlement.  If such estimates are not available at this time, they must be provided in the motion for final approval.

Paragraph 52 of the settlement agreement talks about the Parties (defined in ¶23 as the named plaintiff and the defendants) resolving any workweek dispute, and provides that if the Parties do not agree, the dispute will be submitted to the court.  However, a class member contesting a workweek determination is not a Party as defined.  Thus, the settlement agreement may not provide that the Parties will make the final decision as to the number of eligible Pay Periods.  The settlement agreement must reflect instead that the court will resolve any Pay Period dispute not otherwise resolved by the Parties and the employee who contests a Pay Period determination.  The end of Section 5 of the class notice on p. 3 also must be amended in this manner.

Rather than having class members prepare their own opt-out requests, the class notice must include an exclusion form that class members can complete and submit.  The form should be referenced in the class notice.

In the two references to “Identified but Unnamed Defendants” in Section 5 of the class notice, add the parenthetical “(listed in Section 7, below)”.

In Section 5E of the class notice on p. 2, the blank should be filled in, saying that the PAGA Release is described in Section 7.  Similarly, the blanks that say “(date preliminary approval is granted or May 1, 2022, whichever is sooner)” can be filled in as May 1, 2022.

The moving papers do not include a copy of plaintiff’s PAGA notice letters to the LWDA sent on March 4, 2021 and March 24, 2022.  The court needs a copy of the letters to verify that the settlement terms are consistent with the notices provided to the LWDA.

Plaintiff is ordered to give notice of the ruling to defense counsel unless notice is waived.