As we recently discussed, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit called into question the FLSA’s long-standing judicial supervision requirement, creating a split of authority between its decision rejecting the supervision requirement where other indicia of fairness are present, and the Eleventh Circuit’s 1982 decision relied on by courts which requires supervision (

For years, the conventional wisdom among FLSA practitioners has been that waiver of FLSA claims requires “supervision,” either from a court or the federal Department of Labor. This supervision requirement dates back to the seminal appellate case on the subject, Lynn’s Food Stores, Inc. v. United States, 679 F.2d 1350 (11th Cir. 1982). Since Lynn’s Food

Suing one’s employees—current or former—is fraught with expense, risk and the very real possibility of obtaining no relief whatsoever. For these reasons, employers typically do not contemplate or if contemplated decide not to sue employees (outside of the context of restrictive covenants and trade secrets) unless forced into a customary corner: as the defendant in a