Boca Raton attorney Gregg I. Shavitz filed about 20 pages of motions and claims during five months of litigation in a federal suit by a worker seeking overtime pay from her former employer.
After those five months, the defendant, the Rag Shop in Hollywood, offered plaintiff Cheryl Gathagan $32,000, claiming that was the maximum possible amount owed to her under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Shavitz, Gathagan's lawyer, then requested fees of $21,500 for his work, and the real fight began.
Under the federal labor standards law, the prevailing plaintiff attorney automatically is entitled to attorney fees from the defendant. The months that followed produced hundreds of pages of filings and a heated battle over whether Shavitz should get the requested fee. Last February, U.S. District Judge Kenneth R. Ryskamp in West Palm Beach sided with the defense, represented by Allan H. Weitzman and Arlene Karin Kline of Proskauer Rose in Boca Raton.
Ryskamp found that the Rag Shop's tendered offer did not constitute a settlement or victory for the plaintiff. Since a plaintiff must prevail to collect attorney fees in FLSA cases, Shavitz did not get his $21,500 payday.
Details here from the Daily Business Review from Law.com.