Dealership compensation structures are built around commission timing that creates forfeiture exposure under Sciborski v. Pacific Bell Directory. This exposure is systematic rather than episodic. Every departed salesperson with a pending deal at the time of separation is a potential claimant.
The timing mismatch is structural: a salesperson closes a deal (negotiates price, gets signatures, hands off to F&I), but the commission is not paid until the financing funds — which can take weeks. If the salesperson leaves between closing and funding, most dealership commission plans forfeit the commission on the pending deal. Under Sciborski, commissions are earned when the employee completes the work entitling them to the commission — at deal closing, not at deal funding. Conditioning payment on continued employment through funding constitutes an unlawful forfeiture.
The exposure analysis requires tracing every departed salesperson's pending deals at departure, whether those deals subsequently funded, and whether the departed salesperson was paid. This forensic work is labor-intensive but devastating when it reveals a pattern. In one analysis, the supervising partner — a senior wage-and-hour practitioner with decades of experience — noted he had never seen the Sciborski forfeiture theory raised in his practice. The theory has the potential to generate claims industry-wide.