WORKPLACE WAGE, OVERTIME, AND BENEFITS CASES
Traber & Voorhees has served as class counsel in a number of wage and hour class or collective actions. Among these are:

Veliz. v. Cintas Corp., a national class action alleging claims for violations of federal and state overtime laws, ERISA, and failure to provide mandated meal and rest breaks under certain state law. This case resulted in a settlement of $22.75 million from which more than 6,500 current and former Cintas Route Drivers received payments from the settlement fund.

Lara v. Assi Super, Inc., alleging Latino employees of a Koreatown supermarket were discriminated against on the basis of race or national origin and that Asian American and other employees were not paid overtime and suffered other violations of their rights under wage and hour laws, resulting in a settlement of approximately $1.5 million.

Vaca v. Cintas Corp., a class action case alleging a failure to pay overtime and other wage and hour violations on behalf of a class of more than 700 delivery drivers throughout California and resulting in a settlement of $10 million.

Flores v. Alberston’s, Inc., charging wage and hour violations on behalf of supermarket janitors working in major supermarkets throughout California and settling for more than $19 million.

Pedroza v. Fashion 21, Inc., charging a retail clothing chain with discriminating against its non-Korean-American employees and with failing to pay full overtime wages, resulting in a settlement of $1 million, training for the company’s managers, and important changes in the company’s employment policies.

Otera v. Rent-A-Center, alleging that employees had been improperly misclassified as exempt from the overtime laws and denied the payment of overtime wages. This case resulted in a settlement of $3 million and other important protections for workers.

E.E.O.C. v. McKesson Water Product Company, charging wage and hour violations for a class of workers and resulting in a settlement in excess of $1.6 million and substantial training and policy changes at the company.

Bullock v. Automobile Club of Southern California, a collective action brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act which resolved in a multi-million dollar settlement.

If you believe that your employer has denied you proper overtime pay or any other benefits to which you may be entitled under state or federal law, you can contact Traber & Voorhees during business hours at (626) 585-9611 for an intake interview.

The United States Department of Labor and the California Department of Industrial Relations (Division of Labor Standards Enforcement) are the two primary government agencies that oversee the enforcement of wage and hour laws in California. If you are interested in reading more about your rights and finding out about these government agencies, please click here.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION AND RETALIATION CASES

Traber & Voorhees has served as counsel in a number of significant employment discrimination cases. Among these are:

LaPay, et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al., and Grobeson v. City of Los Angeles, both of which charged LAPD officers with discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, the first of which resulted in what was then the largest monetary resolution of a sexual orientation case ever obtained against a law enforcement agency and the latter of which resulted in a settlement requiring L.A. to adopt administrative practices and regulations protecting gay and lesbian employees and protecting their rights to engage in recruitment and outreach in the gay and lesbian community.

EEOC [Estrada] v. Farmer Brothers, an individual gender discrimination trial against a major food company in Los Angeles, which resulted in an award in excess of $2 million. The opinion affirming Estrada’s success at the trial level is reported at EEOC [Estrada] v. Farmer Brothers, 31 F.3d 891 (9th Cir. 1994).

Spink v. Lockheed, et al., which charged Lockheed with age discrimination, ERISA violations, and breaching the company's fiduciary duties in running its pension. Although the case was dismissed in the district court, these claims were reinstated by the Ninth Circuit in Spink, et al. v. Lockheed, et al., 60 F.3d 616 (9th Cir. 1995) only to be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lockheed Corp. v. Spink, 517 U.S. 882 (1996). The matter was settled for a confidential sum following remand rulings before the Ninth Circuit.

Zuchegna v. Librascope Corp., a gender and age discrimination case brought by a 61-year-old female inspector against a defense contractor who denied her a promotion and then laid her off illegally, which resulted in a mid-trial settlement of $1.4 million.

Strother v. Southern California Permanente Medical Group, et al. (CV 92-5549 RSWL (SHx)), in which an African-American partner physician charged Kaiser supervisors and fellow doctors with discriminating against her because of her gender and her race, and with retaliating against her after she complained. On appeal in Strother v. Southern California Permanente Medical Group, et al., 79 F.3d 859 (9th Cir. 1996), Dr. Strother established, inter alia, that partners may rely on the protections of employment discrimination statutes to the extent they can prove they are sufficiently like employees, notwithstanding their formal partnership status. The case ultimately settled for a confidential amount.

If you believe that you have suffered discrimination in the terms and conditions of your employment and/or have been retaliated against for challenging workplace conditions or practices, you can contact Traber & Voorhees during business hours at (626) 585-9611 for an intake interview.

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing are the two primary government agencies that oversee enforcement of the anti-discrimination and retaliation statutes related to employment. If you are interested in reading more about your rights and finding out about these government agencies, please click here.

HOUSING RIGHTS CASES

Traber & Voorhees has served as individual and class counsel in a number of complex fair housing class actions, resulting in some of the largest settlements against private defendants ever obtained. Among the cases that have been litigated are:

Walker, et al. v. Lakewood Condo Owners Assoc., et al., CV 93-4531 (U.S. District Court, Central District of California), a class action alleging that the manager of a California apartment complex evicted African-American tenants who allowed their teenage children to spend time with other African-American teenagers living in the complex, deliberately falsified complaints in order to evict African-American families, and instructed security guards to harass African-American teenagers by falsely accusing them of various crimes. This case resulted in a settlement for a sum of $1.675 million dollars and significant changes to existing policies and practices at the apartment complex.

Mould, et al. v. Palmdale 112 Ltd., et al., CA 001 201 (Los Angeles Superior Court), a class action brought on behalf of a class of Latino and African-American applicants who were denied housing on account of their ethnicity or race, and resulting in 1991 in the first $1 million-plus settlement of a fair housing case on behalf of the applicant class against private defendants. Traber & Voorhees also obtained significant injunctive relief in the case and the consent decree drafted by the firm has since been published in a nationally-recognized fair housing publication as a model for fair housing consent decrees.

United States v. Joseph Sherman, et. al. (“Plaza”), a class action in which Traber & Voorhees intervened on behalf of families who claimed that they were discriminated against in various mobile home parks throughout California because they had children, including by being denied housing or by being restricted in their children’s use of various facilities based on age. Traber & Voorhees obtained a settlement of the case in excess of $2.2 million dollars on behalf of the settling class and extensive injunctive relief which ensured that discrimination at the mobile home parks ceased. The court’s published decision in United States v. Plaza Mobile Estates, 273 F. Supp. 2d 1084 (C.D. Cal. 2003) is one of the only federal fair housing decisions analyzing rules which restrict or deny the use of housing facilities based on age.
In this case, the Court also ordered the defendant to pay almost $3,000,000 in fees and costs to Traber & Voorhees, who for more than 15 years represented a class of families with children who alleged they were discriminated against, or excluded from, many of those parks. Together with the settlement portion of the same case, this fee award brings the total dollar value of the case to at least $5.2 million, making it one of the largest, if not the largest monetary awards ever obtained in a case alleging discrimination against families with children.

The decision obtained in this case was featured in the 2004 issue of “Mobilehome Parks Report,” in an article recognizing that the decision had “broad implications, not only for mobilehome park owners but for rules in apartments and homeowners’ associations that restrict activities based on age.” It was also featured in an article entitled “How Age-Restrictive Rules Can Violate the Fair Housing Act: Lessons From the Plaza Mobile Estates Case,” published in the Winter 2006 issue of Community Connections.

If you believe that you have been subjected to housing discrimination, you can contact Traber & Voorhees during business hours at (626) 585-9611 to request an intake interview.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing are the two primary government agencies that oversee enforcement of the fair housing statutes. If you are interested in reading more about your rights and finding out about these government agencies, please click here.

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CASES

Ms. Traber acted as one of the lead trial counsel in the case of Doe v. Radovan Karadzic. This case was brought on behalf of 21 Muslim families whose members were murdered, tortured, raped and otherwise brutalized as a part of the Serbian “ethnic cleansing” campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It resulted in a verdict of more than $4.5 billion. In 2001, the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation honored Ms. Traber and her co-counsel as finalists for Public Interest Trial Lawyers of the Year for their work on this case.

Traber & Voorhees is also counsel in the case of Larry Bowoto, et al. v. Chevron Corporation. In this case, the firm has joined other human rights lawyers in charging Chevron with, among other things, violating international human rights law by killing and torturing Nigerians in conjunction with their oil production activities in the Niger Delta. The federal case went to trial on October 27, 2008, in district court in San Francisco, resulting in a December 1 defense verdict. Plaintiffs appealed that verdict to the Ninth Circuit which rejected that appeal in September, 2010, and the subsequent petition for rehearing in February 2011. In June 2011, the plaintiffs petitioned the United States Supreme Court to hear their appeal.

OTHER CASES INVOLVING CIVIL AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

Traber & Voorhees has served as lead counsel or lead co-counsel in a number of other public interest cases involving deprivations of constitutional and civil rights. Here is a listing of just a few of those cases:

Jesus Doe et al. v. Davis et al. (Case No. 965090), a case involving a petition for writ of mandate and complaint for injunctive relief by six undocumented aliens challenging Section 8 of Proposition 187, which prohibited any institution of public postsecondary education from enrolling or retaining undocumented aliens. Along with its co-counsel, Traber & Voorhees obtained a successful judgment in favor of its clients.

J. B. et al. v. California Department of Education et al. (CV 06-4067 ER), a case on behalf of four teenage siblings which challenged a pattern of unlawful placement of foster children in a school district in Los Angeles County. The case alleged that these children were labeled severely emotionally disturbed, removed from public school, and placed in an institutionalized and segregated education setting without properly evaluating their learning abilities or educational needs and without appointing an educational surrogate parent who could represent their interests. Together with Public Counsel, the Learning Rights Law Center and other attorneys, Traber & Voorhees litigated a federal lawsuit against the California Department of Education, the school district, and the group home for discrimination and harms faced by the siblings, resulting in a substantial financial settlement with the State and separate confidential settlements with the other defendants. In addition, the State of California increased its monitoring and required training to ensure every foster child in the district is properly placed.

Hall v. Dept. of Developmental Services, et al. (EAC 62883), a case which charged California’s Department of Developmental Services with violating the state’s Lanterman Act by reducing funding of services at a residential care facility. Following a liability finding against the state of California in 1992, the case was resolved by way of a $1.5 million settlement.

City of Pasadena v. Pasadena Denver Lanes, et al. (GC 015651), a case in which the firm intervened on behalf of the Pasadena Chapter of the NAACP and acted as amicus curiae to successfully oppose and limit an overreaching gang injunction in the City of Pasadena.

Goldstein v. Long Beach, et al. (CV 04-09692-AHM), a case in which a man who has spent twenty-four years in prison has sued the City of Long Beach, County of Los Angeles, and individual prosecutors for wrongful conviction.

If you believe that your civil or constitutional rights have been violated, you can contact Traber & Voorhees during business hours at (626) 585-9611 to request an intake interview.

If you are interested in reading more about your rights and finding out about government agencies responsible for enforcing the civil rights laws in California and the United States, please click here.

ATTORNEYS’ FEES APPLICATIONS

Traber & Voorhees has extensive expertise in preparing and litigating attorneys’ fees applications. In addition, both Ms. Traber and Mr. Voorhees have taught and/or served as experts in the area of obtaining attorneys’ fees in civil rights cases.

If you or your legal organization is interested in having Traber & Voorhees assist with preparing or litigating a fee application, please contact us at (626) 585-9611.