March 4, 2016 Deadline to Join!

In order to sign up for the lawsuit you must complete this form. Consent to Join.

• Sign up now to stop the running of the statute of limitations.  Under the FLSA, employees can recover unpaid damages for 2 or 3 years in the past from the date your consent to join form is filed.   Waiting to file your form could reduce your recovery.

• I can send the form electronically to you to sign through DocuSign.  Email me at chris@crmlawpractice and I will send you the electronic version. It will be effective when signed electronically.

Email the form to chris@crmlawpractice.com or contact me at 817-416-5060 to discuss.

Note:  It is not expected that you have a complete record of all the hours you worked.  That is the Company’s responsibility.  If the Company did not keep records the employee’s testimony of general hours worked is sufficient.

If you performed medical coding services for Nicka & Associates anytime from December 1, 2012 to the present you may be eligible to join this lawsuit. The Court has authorized a notice to be sent to all medical coders.  The Notice can be found here. Nicka Coders Overtime Lawsuit Notice.

In this lawsuit Beth Degrassi is seeking to recover minimum wage and overtime pay for hours she alleges that she worked over 40 hours in a work week while performing coding services for Nicka as a Medical Coder.  Degrassi worked for Nicka performing medical coding as a Medical Coder.  The lawsuit claims that even though Medical Coders were paid on a per chart basis, they were eligible for minimum wages and overtime wages and worked more than 40 hours in one or more work weeks, but did not get overtime pay for the hours they worked over 40 hours per week.  Degrassi claims that she worked overtime hours, including coding, attending meetings, training and time spent meeting with auditors, and never received overtime pay. Degrassi seeks back wages for the time worked over 40 hours a week. In addition to back wages and unpaid overtime, Degrassi is seeking liquidated damages equal to her unpaid wages and overtime, attorneys’ fees, and costs.  The lawsuit can be found here. Complaint.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides standards for minimum wage and overtime pay. Employees may be eligible to participate in an overtime collective action lawsuit if they have been unlawfully denied overtime wages. The FLSA requires employers to pay covered employees who are not otherwise exempt at least the federal minimum wage and overtime pay of one-and-one-half-times the regular rate of pay.  The FLSA collective action procedure permits the aggregation of hundreds or thousands of claims requiring only that the employees be “similarly situated.”

Collective Action

Collective actions share some characteristics with class actions, but are not the same. In FLSA cases, an employee must opt in, meaning that they must affirmatively sign a document stating that they wish to be a part of the lawsuit.  One or more employees may maintain an action, on behalf of themselves and other employees who are similarly situated, to recover damages on any of the grounds available for individual FLSA relief. Employees who do not file a written consent are not bound by the outcome of the collective action.

Similarly-Situated

Employees must be “similarly situated” to bring a collective action. Employees are “similarly situated” for purposes of FLSA collective wage suits if they are subject to a common policy, plan or design, that stretches across company departments or locations. If there is no commonality, there is no collectiveness and the lawsuit will be dismissed as to the opt in plaintiffs.  The opt in plaintiffs will then have to bring their own lawsuit.  A collective action is simply a way to promote efficient use of the Court’s time and resources.  One case instead of many individual cases.

Certification

Collective actions involve a “certification” process. The first “phase” of the collective action is the “conditional certification” phase. The case is filed and the court is asked to certify a “class” of employees who are similarly situated. In the second stage, after the “class” is conditionally certified, discovery, the information-gathering stage of a lawsuit, is conducted as to the named and opt-in plaintiffs. If the court finds a common policy unites the group of similarly situated employees and that the claims can be resolved with common evidence, the collective action moves forward.

Statute of Limitations

Generally, there is either a two-year statute of limitations for FLSA overtime claims or a three-year statute of limitations for willful violations; an action for opt-in plaintiffs only begins when an employee signs a written consent to become a party and then files it with the court. Therefore, an individual’s own lawsuit does not start until he or she signs the consent and opts in and the from is filed with the court. Signed consents filed after the filing of the original complaint do not relate back to the date the complaint was filed. Thus, for each employee who opts into a case after the lawsuit is filed, the action is ”commenced” for limitations purposes on the date on which the employee’s written consent is filed with the court.