WARN Act

WARN Act Overview: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-warn.htm#overview

You’ve Been WARNed

13 Responses to “WARN Act”

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  1. 1 Derner 20 October 2008 at 9:05 pm

    So…how does this class action law suit thing work? I want the money that I was told I could rely on.

    What has to happen next? Who has to file the suit?

    Dammit, where are all the lawyers when you need one?

  2. 2 Anon2 20 October 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Derner, apparently a class action suit was filed today in UDSC. If you go to either law.com or legalpad.com and find the link about Heller staff files class action suit, there is a pdf copy of the complaint that was filed today.

  3. 3 Anon2 20 October 2008 at 10:57 pm

    Oh dear, I just looked at the complaint in more detail and they omitted Heller Ehrman LLP! It just lists the old longer name, et al. Attention! Please contact the lawyers and tell them to amend it!!

  4. 4 Bad Move 21 October 2008 at 12:19 am

    Anon2, yes, that’s what the plaintiffs get for taking a lawyer working solely on commission. (FYI-typical plaintiff lawyers get at least 1/3rd of what the plaintiff is owed/can recover.)

    Unfortunately, and don’t get me wrong, the blame still lies solely on the firm, its management, and the shareholders, the only thing a class action did at this time is guarantee that 1/3rd of the total recovery (no matter what it is) will end up with the plaintiff lawyer. Best case scenario: the class settles for 75% or 60% of what is owed. With 1/3rd of that going to Helland, employees will receive 50% 0r 40% of what they’re owed in an optimal scenario.

    Further, a claim like this provides a window for an involuntary bankruptcy, where the plaintiffs can expect to lose at least an additional 10-20% and 6+ months of recovery time.

    Best case scenario used to be that employees are paid what they are owed, but it would take longer. Taking longer to get paid 100% just turned into taking a lot longer to get a lot less than 100%.

    Thanks, all.

  5. 5 NotOverlooked 21 October 2008 at 1:58 am

    Heller Ehrman LLP is a branding name – I believe all the corporate entity names were listed in the dissolution plan which was made public about two weeks ago.

  6. 6 Observer 21 October 2008 at 2:11 am

    The complaint does track the entity designations as in the Dissoluton Plan.

    But it’s definitely a sloppy piece of work.
    For example, these attorneys have filed with a typo in the citation to the jurisdiction statute they are relying on for the class action aspect: they have 29 U.S.C. 1332(d), when they mean 28 U.S.C. 1332(d). (Check the very high — i.e. recently admitted — bar numbers of the two named California attorneys on the caption)

  7. 7 Derner 21 October 2008 at 3:52 pm

    So, you’re telling me that we had a company full of lawyers and yet we screwed up the process of filing a lawsuit?

  8. 8 Anon2 21 October 2008 at 4:18 pm

    Sigh, this is getting worse each day. Now we have a premature sloppy class action complaint that will suck more of money out of our pockets to go to another lawyer. Why is it that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?

  9. 9 MTBR 22 October 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Ok question on this. On the offices that were not listed can we retain another Attorney or are we stuck with dealing with KNA?

  10. 10 Observer 25 October 2008 at 12:56 am

    MTBR: On offices that were not listed, you absolutely can get a different attorney. If you do that, talk to them about the KNA suit, and see what they think could be done about it. (First to file does not always end up being the lead counsel on a class action.)

  11. 11 Class Action Lawyer 28 October 2008 at 11:51 pm

    I’m a former Heller litigator, from the 1990s, in Heller’s Los Angeles office. (Yale Law ‘87.) Our firm, Blum Collins, LLP, has litigated numerous class actions and employment actions. We are willing to talk to anyone who wants to consider bringing a class action based on WARN violations. Feel free to call me at 213 572 0400.

    Steven A. Blum

  12. 12 Observer 30 October 2008 at 1:59 am

    More from the geniuses at Nichols Kaster:

    They filed a proof of service of their class action complaint, which states that the complaint was served on the firm via personal service on “Peter VenVenutti.”

  13. 13 Pumasdad 3 December 2008 at 12:30 am

    I just received a letter from the State of California re my claim that I filed for “Warn Act” pay & accrued vacation pay, it seems that my file has been closed and nothing more will be done, since there is a Class Action already filed, so even though I told the attorney responsible for the Class action suit that I did not wish to be a part of it 2 months ago, the State of California Department of Labor will not represent me or any other Hellerite, I spoke to a very nice man at the Commissioner’s office in San Francisco today who informed me that if the “Class Act” gets certified we will then have a chance to Opt out but if we do we will have to start from square one, and remember that if we join the Class Action we will lost 1/3 of any monetary award, this does not seem fair and I intend to check with some of the Heller associates that I know chose not to be a part of the Class Action, also if we lose the Class Act we would be liable for court costs, I am concerned since I understand that the attorney representing the Heller Employees has only three years experiance as an attorney versus the Heller Shareholders (who I believe are responsible for this mess) the best thing is if Heller decides to do the right thing and pay us without going to court, Stay tuned and good luck to us all,


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