Leonard Carder has a diverse caseload of statewide and national employment class actions, individual employee rights cases, and other pro-worker litigation, including numerous cases under California’s “wage and hour” and unfair competition laws. More about Leonard Carder’s current individual and class action cases.
Leonard Carder continues to be at the forefront of challenging sham “independent contractor” arrangements against some of the largest corporations in America – from FedEx Ground, SuperShuttle, and CSX Transportation, to flooring installation and other construction companies. Having won a $27 million judgment for 200 FedEx Ground drivers in California, and establishing an important precedent in Estrada v. FedEx Ground Package Systems, Inc., 154 Cal.App.4th 1 (2007), Leonard Carder has been co-lead counsel in the nationwide, multi-district litigation for most of the 27,000 FedEx Ground drivers who wear FedEx uniforms and drive FedEx logo-ed trucks each day but are called “independent contractors.” This representation led to another major precedent-setting case – Alexander v. FedEx Ground Package Systems, Inc., 756 F.3d 981 (9th Cir. 2014). In 2016, Leonard Carder received approval of a landmark $226.5 million settlement on behalf of almost 2000 California FedEx Ground Drivers in the Alexander case and an additional settlement of over $200 million for FedEx Drivers across the country in Multi-District Litigation. More information about Leonard Carder’s work on behalf of employees who are misclassified “independent contractors.”
Leonard Carder has repeatedly obtained sizable judgments and settlements against employers who violate a myriad of California’s wage and hour laws. These cases include class actions and individual worker cases on issues including expense reimbursement, overtime pay and “exempt” misclassification, “independent contractor” misclassification; minimum wage/living wage, meal and rest periods, vacation and sick pay, and commissions.
Leonard Carder’s attorneys have won or settled scores of major wage and hour class actions, including cases against Best Buy, US Bank, Extended Stay America, Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theater, AC Transit District, Univision, Clear Channel, Sysco and other foodservice companies, and many others. More about these and other successes. These cases are in addition to dozens more employee-rights cases that have been litigated and/or settled on behalf of individual and small groups of employees.
Leonard Carder’s attorneys have also represented workers and worker-advocacy organizations in several precedent-setting cases before federal and state appellate courts and the California Supreme Court. These cases, which have advanced the rights of workers statewide and nationwide, include the published FedEx cases in addition to Narayan v EGL, Inc., 616 F.3d 895 (2010); Samaniego v Empire Today, LLC, 205 Cal. App. 4th 1138 (2012); Ayala v Antelope Valley Newspapers, Inc., 59 Cal. 4th 522 (2014); and Kairy v SuperShuttle International, 660 F.3d 1146 (2011).
As active members of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, the American Bar Association’s Federal Labor Standards Legislation committee, the California Employment Lawyers Association and the National Employment Lawyers Association, Leonard Carder’s attorneys have lectured and written extensively on the subjects of misclassification and wage and hour enforcement actions.