Circle K Class Action Lawsuit

A Dishonest Insurance Agent Negotiated a Default judgement in a Class Action Lawsuit

According to the class action lawsuit, Circle K was failing to pay their workers who worked long shift a full premium of one whole hour for the minimum wage. Also, the workers did not get breaks and lunch breaks. In fact, the working conditions were so bad that many people began to show signs of stress. Many of the workers were unable to go home on time because of the long hours they spent at work. They did not receive enough sleep during the days. The case was filed against Circle K by a lawyer named Johnnie Lora.

Circle K Class Action Lawsuit

When the case got to court, it was defended by the company as being business related and so it did not fall under the classification of a workers’ compensation case. However, some court cases have proven that the company was indeed aware of the problems occurring in the storerooms and yet, they did nothing to correct it. The final ruling of the trial stated that the company did indeed have to compensate its former employees for the losses incurred and this was what brought about the successful Collective Action lawsuit.

The class action lawsuit was eventually settled out of court but the damage had been done.

The company paid the agreed sum of money to all the individual class members. However, they still did not offer any wage replacement or health benefits. This was an issue that concerned the court enough to give the plaintiffs the opportunity to collect their deserved wages.

The judge ordered the company to provide a settlement payment to all the class members who received a wage replacement lesser than the amount they would have received if they had continued working for the company.

This was one of the reasons why the Collective action lawsuit was filed in the first place. The judge also made the companies aware that if they were going to be allowed to settle without providing any form of settlement, then they had no business doing business in California.

The company did settle out of court but has yet to provide any type of satisfactory explanation as to why they did not offer a settlement.

The judge did find merit to some of the claims that the class members suffered while working for the company. However, she denied the claims for financial compensation for personal injuries and damages. The claim for damages was denied by the judge solely based on the fact that it was not a legitimate claim. If the claim for damages were legitimate, the court could have allowed the plaintiff to recover monetary damages based on what they actually earned and what they actually spent in the company.

The company was ordered to pay back all the monies that it owes its class members. The claim for back wages was denied because the employees were not employed by the defendant and therefore could not claim back wages. The judge did however allow the claim for lost wages as a result of being forced into retirement. This is based on the fact that the plaintiff was a nine-year employee who was forced into retirement after the company failed and she was owed a substantial amount of back wages by her former employer.

The defendant did not have to pay attorney fees.

It was advised that they would only need to hire an attorney if they would be successful in recovering any monies that the plaintiffs did not receive in the original lawsuit. There was never any requirement for them to hire an attorney. There was also no requirement for them to post a bond. The judgment was based purely upon the complaint and there was no evidence that there was ever a necessity for a witness to testify at a deposition.

The ruling was very unfortunate. Had the attorneys tried harder to handle this class action lawsuit, they may have been able to get an award of $15 million or more. However, that is probably all that the plaintiff ever would have received from this lawsuit. It is unfortunate that the defendant’s insurance agent did not have enough experience to help them with this lawsuit. Hopefully, the lesson will be learned and hopefully more plaintiffs will not have to suffer as a result of their lack of experience in class action lawsuits.