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Paralegal Files Lawsuit Against Law Firm For Overtime Pay Violations
A paralegal has filed a lawsuit against her former employer, a law firm based in Dallas, Texas, for misclassifying her as an exempt employee, attempting to make her ineligible for overtime pay. The paralegal, who performed basic legal assistant responsibilities, worked for the north Texas law firm from 2005 to 2010 and claims that she regularly worked more than 40 hours a week, worked through her lunch hour, and that her duties did not include supervising other employees.
The paralegal hired an overtime pay lawyer and claimed that all the paralegals on staff had similar duties like filing papers and talking to clients, but some were classified as non-exempt employees while some, like the one seeking her unpaid wages, were exempt. Because of this claim, the case has been given class-action status and all former paralegals who the law firm had classified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act will be given the option to join the overtime lawsuit.
We've seen these wage labor law violations for paralegals and legal assistants in Houston as well. In fact, we recently made a substantial recovery for a paralegal under the overtime pay laws of Texas.
When employees are properly classified as having an administrative or executive capacity they are exempt from receiving overtime pay. However, competent labor attorneys will recognize when law firms and other employers misclassify employees to avoid paying overtime wages. Misclassification is one of The Top 20 Overtime and Wage Scams and, whether intentional or not, it is just one tactic employers use to keep wages low or deny entitled wages and benefits under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Almost 90 percent of the working population is entitled to overtime pay. An employer's classification of exempt employees can be wrong and in many cases it is intentionally done in violation of the wage and hour act. Find out if you have been a victim of wage scams on our FAQ page. As Houston unpaid wage lawyers, we can answer your questions.
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It sounds like you may have run into this situation before. As far as your balancing question goes (higher salary but no overtime pay for a paralegal who has and uses an nursing degree), I think it really comes down to the mathematics as far as the money is concerned. Either you make more per hour on average with the higher salary or you make more on average when you account for the overtime payments. Either way, the real issue is whether the law firm complies with the law and offers a professional work environment.
I’d be happy to discuss this further if you care to give me a call. Galvin Kennedy