Court strikes down employee's exorbitant attorneys' fees award

In the following case, an employee sued her former employer for wrongful termination, retaliation, meal and rest period violations, and waiting time penalties. The parties agreed to settle the meal and rest period and waiting time penalty claims for $15,000, and the employee dropped the retaliation and wrongful termination claims. Her attorneys then sought an award of $580,000 for their fees. Even though it found the time the attorneys claimed to have spent on the case was unreasonable and their hourly rates were too high, the trial court still awarded them $280,000. The employee didn't fare so well when the employer appealed the award.

Server sues restaurant for wrongful termination, meal and rest period violations

From 2008 to 2015, Raquel Betancourt worked as a server at Fleming's Steakhouse in Los Angeles, owned and operated by OS Restaurant Services, LLC, and Bloomin' Brands, Inc. Betancourt claimed that she saw a chef using a vegetable cutting board to prepare raw chicken and reported the incident to her manager, but her report was ignored. Three months later, she informed a senior HR manager that one of the chefs routinely used vegetable cutting boards to prepare raw chicken and that employees were regularly denied their 10-minute rest periods.