Financial advisors are also often forced, under terms imposed by their employers, to pay the salaries of their assistants, as well as other business related costs and charges, including what are known as broken trades/charge backs. California Labor Code 2802 states in pertinent part that, "an employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or loss incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties...". Labor Code 2802 binds all California employers and indemnifies the employees for all that the employee necessarily expends or loses in direct consequence of the discharge of duties. This means that employees' salaries must be fully paid by the company; no senior employee should be required to subsidize a subordinate or assistant's salary. Furthermore, no advisor should be required to pay to the employer money for broken trades or other business expenses. There is a common misconception that employers make the rules and, if you want to work for them, you must follow their rules. However, the California Labor Code binds all California employers to certain codes of conduct regarding payment of wages and business expenses of their employees.

Large and small employers of financial advisors have recently settled these types of cases, and amended their business practices. In such cases the financial advisors will receive overtime pay and reimbursement for improperly charged trading errors and business expenses.

San Diego Law Firm is investigating possible class actions against any employer of financial advisors. San Diego Law Firm is responsible for this newsletter and all of the information and opinions in this newsletter is based on information we have gathered to date.

If you or someone you know is employed as a financial advisor, and if you are curious about your rights and obligations as an employee, please contact San Diego Law Firm today.

The case began in February 2005 when an existing SDLF client said he was concerned that Dreyer's was not paying overtime wages to himself and other sales employees. SDLF researched the problem and decided that Dreyers' salaried salespeople, including our client, were probably not so-called "exempt employees" under the California Labor Code. If a court agreed, Dreyer's would owe the salespeople back wages for overtime, and would have to start paying overtime in the future.

SDLF researched the best way to obtain the money Dreyer's owed the client and other employees. We decided that it would be best to bring a class action, with SDLF's client specifically named as the "class representative" for similarly situated sales employees. We then did more research to make sure that, by law, Dreyer's could not terminate our client because of his status as the class representative. Once we were sure of that, SDLF's client was willing to become the class representative in a class action against Dreyer's to obtain overtime pay owed to himself and other employees.

SDLF's attorneys began working to prepare the documents and investigate the case as class actions are lawsuits that involve a great deal of specialized research, investigation, and paperwork. We then filed the class action in April of 2005. We agreed to mediation in May 2006 in San Francisco before Mark Rudy, an expert mediator of class action wage-and-labor disputes. Mediation can resolve a case much more quickly than a court trial, giving the class action plaintiffs the benefit of an early settlement if the parties can come to an agreement on the amount owed and other items.

Part of the evidence we presented for the class was a chart of all employees and the weeks they worked during the relevant time period. Each of the class members had worked at least five hours of overtime each week during the period of time covered by the lawsuit. The final number of employees in the class (after nine "opted out") was 107. Mediator Rudy determined that a jury could award as much as $600,000 per hour for the overtime these employees had worked, or as much as three million dollars to the entire class if a jury found the employees worked five hours of overtime each week. However, mediator Rudy felt that there was still a risk to the class that a jury could agree with Dreyer's that the employees were "exempt." If that happened, the case would have to be appealed and could go on for years, and the class might still not get an award. Because of the uncertainties for each side, Dreyer's and SDLF agreed to settle the case for $2,000,000 (two million dollars). The Superior Court approved the settlement and signed a final legal judgment on September 15, 2006. Immediately after that hearing, each of the 107 class members were sent a check ranging from $5,000 to over $40,000, based on how much unpaid overtime each had worked.

San Diego Law Firm is grateful for the opportunity to represent and assist the employees in this case. If you or someone you know needs an experienced lawyer, please call us at 619-337-2950. We accept many cases on contingency, meaning our fees are taken only from whatever amount we recover. We accept other cases on reasonable hourly or flat fees. If you need help, please call us today.