Attorneys representing Five Guys Enterprises LLC workers, who say the restaurant chain stiffed them on overtime and breaks, must turn over billing records before a federal judge will sign off on their fees, negotiated as part of a $1.2 million settlement.
Class counsel Setareh Law Group asked for $300,000 in attorneys’ fees for its work on the wage-and-hour case, but the firm needs to provide more information before the US District Court for the Eastern District of California can tell if the total time spent on the suit was reasonable.
The workers accuse Five Guys and franchisee Encore FGBF LLC of multiple wage-and-hour violations, including meal and rest break issues and unpaid overtime. Judge Anthony W. Ishii gave the settlement an initial nod in October after rejecting four earlier versions of the deal.
The workers told the court that Setareh Law spent more than 460 hours working on the case. But the firm didn’t submit time sheets to back up the fees it requested or a lodestar crosscheck, Judge Jennifer L. Thurston—who took over the case from Ishii in January—said.
The Ninth Circuit directs judges to review whether the hours attorneys billed are reasonable given the work they performed and the case’s context, Thurston said. However, the court can’t perform that review until it receives class counsel’s billing records, according to the order filed Tuesday.
Thurston gave Setareh Law seven days from the order’s service date to supply the requested records.
Littler Mendelson PC represents Five Guys, which denies liability.
The case is Lusk v. Five Guys Enters. LLC, 2023 BL 182953, E.D. Cal., 1:17-cv-00762, order filed 5/30/23.
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