Ted Hollis Quoted in Law360 Story on Supreme Court Case About FLSA Evidence Standards
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in E.M.D. Sales Inv. v. Carrera, a case focused on evidence standards for the overtime exemptions in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A Law360 article explored the issues likely to be raised during oral arguments and included insight from Ted Hollis, a Quarles & Brady Labor & Employment partner in the firm’s Indianapolis office.
The case centers around claims by three sales representatives that they were not properly paid for overtime work and whether or not FLSA’s clear and convincing evidence standard should apply rather than the default preponderance of evidence standard.
Hollis explained the likely impact on employers if the clear and convincing standard is applied. An excerpt:
Echoing E.M.D.'s arguments, Ted Hollis, a partner with management-side firm Quarles & Brady LLP, said that a clear and convincing standard will likely preclude summary judgment and force employers into settlement.
"It'll make a big determination in a lot of wage and hour disputes over exempt status as to how those cases are going to be resolved on the merits, and also at what stage that will happen," he said. "Will it be early through a settlement? Will summary judgment be still available and appropriate, or is it going to drive more cases that don't settle towards a trial?"
One issue Hollis said he will watch out for in the oral arguments is how the justices discuss the fact that "clear and convincing" language is absent from the statutory text of the FLSA. The conservative justices are likely to focus on that, which will be a key argument that determines the fate of this case, he said.
"The argument would be that [preponderance of the evidence] is the default standard in civil litigation," he said, "unless Congress specifically states in a statutory text that a clear and convincing standard applies, historically, the Supreme Court and other courts have only applied that standard where there's some extraordinarily important interest at stake, something beyond simply a monetary dispute."