The matter involved overlapping PAGA and class action claims against a multi-location dealership group, with a tentative global settlement from a prior case, arbitration rulings from a separate six-hour evidentiary hearing, and competing class definitions across the related actions. The class certification opposition required synthesizing the procedural history across all related matters, identifying inconsistencies between the plaintiff's proposed class definition and the evidence adduced at the evidentiary hearing, and demonstrating that individualized issues — particularly around the commissioned-employee exemption, which required workweek-by-workweek verification — predominated over common questions. The prior attorneys' draft had been in progress for weeks. The final submission integrated the multi-case procedural analysis, the evidentiary hearing record, and the substantive predominance arguments into a cohesive opposition.
Class Certification
Multi-Dealership Automotive Group
Finalized class certification opposition navigating multiple related actions and a six-hour evidentiary hearing.
The Transferable Point
The commissioned-employee overtime exemption under Wage Order 7-2001, § 3(D) has two prongs — more than half of compensation must be commissions, and earnings must exceed one and one-half times the minimum wage — and both are tested workweek by workweek rather than averaged across the period. A salesperson can satisfy the test in a strong month and fail it in a slow one. That granularity is what defeats commonality: the exemption's application is an individualized inquiry by construction, not by litigation posture.
Methods Applied
- Multi-case procedural history synthesis across overlapping PAGA and class actions
- Evidentiary hearing record integration into predominance argument
- Commissioned-employee exemption workweek-by-workweek analysis
- Class definition inconsistency identification across related actions
- Cohesive opposition construction from fragmented prior draft
Governing Authorities
Motion Finalized
This matter description is for illustrative purposes only. Details have been generalized to protect client confidentiality. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.