As the volume of FLSA litigation remains high, an impediment to resolving such cases (even where the underlying claimant’s wage claim already has been resolved) is the issue of the appropriate fee to be paid to counsel representing the worker pursuant to the fee shifting provision of the FLSA and/or applicable state labor law. 

Issuing its second sharply divided procedural opinion in as many months with ramifications for wage-and-hour practitioners, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled that a Pennsylvania nursing facility’s “offer of judgment,” which would have provided full relief to the sole putative collective action representative, effectively “mooted” her case.  Accordingly, no collective action could proceed even though the

FLSA lawsuits seeking unpaid minimum or overtime wages typically are brought as “collective actions,” pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). State law claims typically are brought – often in the same lawsuit – as class actions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Despite the large number of wage and hour class and collective actions brought in