ERIC F. MELGREN, District Judge.
Plaintiff Jennifer Tommey brings suit against Computer Sciences Corporation, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, seeking unpaid overtime and related penalties and damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq. There is no motion pending before the Court. However, the parties have submitted for the Court's approval a Settlement Agreement and Release (the "Settlement Agreement") and a proposed Order Granting Approval of FLSA Settlement (the "Order"). As explained below, these documents do not provide sufficient information for the Court to scrutinize the settlement for fairness, and the parties must submit additional information before the Court can approve the settlement.
A settlement of claims under the FLSA must be presented to the Court for review and determination of whether the settlement is fair and reasonable.
The parties have not requested a fairness hearing on the settlement of Plaintiff's claims. Section 216(b) of the FLSA does not require a fairness hearing like that required for settlements of class actions brought under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23.
Although the Court has conditionally certified a collective action for purposes of providing notice, the Court has not made a final collective action determination in this case. "When parties settle FLSA claims before the Court has made a final certification ruling, the court must make some final class certification finding before it can approve a collective action settlement."
Even if the Court had already determined that the case should proceed as a collective action, the parties have not provided sufficient information for the Court to approve the proposed settlement. To approve an FLSA settlement, the court must find that the litigation involves a bona fide dispute and that the proposed settlement is fair and equitable to all parties.
The parties requesting review of an FLSA settlement must provide enough information for the court to determine whether a bona fide dispute exists.
The parties' Order is silent regarding the existence of a bona fide dispute, but the Settlement Agreement states in one sentence that there is a bona fide dispute regarding the amount of overtime Defendants owe to Plaintiff and the class members. The Court cannot determine from this sentence whether the proposed settlement resolves a bona fide dispute under the FLSA. To the extent possible, the parties should provide the information listed above for the Court's review.
To determine whether a proposed settlement under § 216(b) is fair and equitable to the parties, courts regularly look at the fairness factors that apply to a proposed class action settlement under Rule 23(e). These include (1) whether the proposed settlement has been fairly and honestly negotiated, (2) whether serious questions of law and fact exist that place the ultimate outcome of the litigation in doubt, (3) whether the value of an immediate recovery outweighs the mere possibility of future relief after protracted and expensive litigation, and (4) the judgment of the parties that the settlement is fair and reasonable.
In the proposed Order, the parties assert that the settlement is fair and reasonable. However, the parties make no assertions and provide no information regarding any of the four factors listed above. The limited information offered is simply not enough for the Court to determine if the settlement is fair and reasonable to all parties.
The Court is required to examine any enhancement payment to the class representative to determine whether that person "has used the class action claim for unfair personal aggrandizement in the settlement, with prejudice to absent putative class members."
The parties have provided little information as to Plaintiff Tommey's involvement in the case. Although they indicate that she provided sworn testimony, they do not state the number of hours that she testified for or how many hours she invested in the case. Furthermore, while the litigation did span more than two years, the record is void of any filings by either party from January 2014 to September 2014 except four consent to join forms filed by opt-in plaintiffs. Without additional information, the Court cannot determine if Plaintiff Tommey's enhancement payment is fair and reasonable.
The Settlement Agreement provides that class counsel will receive fees in the amount of twenty-seven percent of the total settlement amount plus reasonable expenses and costs. It further states that $26,400 will be paid as attorneys' fees and $3,600.00 will be paid for costs and expenses. With regard to attorneys' fees, the Tenth Circuit applies a hybrid approach that combines the percentage fee method with the specific factors traditionally used to calculate the lodestar.