Favorable Overtime Settlement for Managers of Payday Lending Stores — 2014.

On December 11, 2014, the Honorable John Lungstrum approved the parties’ settlement in Thornton et al. v. Washington County Financial Management Company, LLC, et al., Case No. 13-CV-01473-JWL-GLR, U.S. Dist. Ct., District of Kansas. Don Peterson, Sean McGivern, and Nathan Elliott represented 10 store managers of payday lending stores in their FLSA lawsuit against Washington County Financial Management and its owners. The lawsuit alleged that Defendants misclassified the store managers as administrative-exempt from overtime for two reasons: (a) Plaintiffs were not allowed to exercise discretion and judgment on matters of significance and (b) Plaintiffs’ salaries were subject to partial day deductions. After a year of litigation activity, the parties reached a favorable settlement. Plaintiffs received more in the settlement than the damages formulas recommended by the United States Department of Labor in a previous investigation of Defendants.