18th Annual Workplace Class Action Report - 2022 Edition

Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report: 2022 Edition 9 Analysis Of Decisions By Circuit Court CIRCUIT COURT D.C. Circuit Court of Federal Claims Employment Discrimination Decisions Certification Motions Granted 0 0 2 1 0 2 0 1 4 2 1 0 0 Certification Motions Denied 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 Sub-Total: 13 Certifications Granted / 5 Certifications Denied ERISA Decisions Certification Motions Granted 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 Certification Motions Denied 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 Decertification Motions Granted 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Decertification Motions Denied 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sub-Total: 8 Certifications Granted / 6 Certifications Denied 0 Decertification Motions Granted / 2 Decertification Motions Denied FLSA Certification Decisions Conditional Certification Motions Granted 5 47 15 13 13 50 17 17 31 10 5 1 2 Conditional Certification Motions Denied 1 9 5 2 9 7 1 3 8 1 7 0 0 Decertification Motions Granted 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 2 1 0 3 0 0 Decertification Motions Denied 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 1 0 Sub-Total: 226 Conditional Certifications Granted / 53 Conditional Certifications Denied 10 Decertification Motions Granted / 9 Decertification Motions Denied Total: 247 Total Certification Motions Granted / 64 Total Certifications Denied 10 Decertification Motions Granted / 11 Decertification Motions Denied Wage & Hour Certification Trends The ease with which plaintiffs have achieved first-stage certification in the FLSA wage & hour context surely has contributed to the number of filings in that area, and plaintiffs achieved a higher rate of success on initial certification motions in 2021 than in any other year of the past decade, indicating that wage & hour remains a sweet spot for the plaintiffs’ bar. In 2021, wage & hour lawsuit filings in federal courts decreased for the sixth year in a row. That said, more FLSA lawsuits were filed during each of the preceding nine years – during 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 – than were filed in any year of the preceding several decades. Many of these cases remain in the pipeline within federal courts, and the result is a burgeoning case load of wage & hour issues. To be sure, the significant volume of FLSA filings over the past several years has caused the issuance of more certification rulings in the FLSA area than in any other substantive area of complex employment litigation.