A Bunch of Stuff After a Class Action Trial

Espejo v. The Copley Press, No. D065397 (D4d1 Jul. 7, 2017)

This is a post-trial appeal after a bench trial in an employment class action brought by newspaper delivery persons. The big substantive issue is whether the class were employees of the Newspaper or independent contractors. Having found they were employees, the court awarded about $3 million in restitution under the UCL, plus $1.7 million in prejudgment interest and $6 million in attorneys’ fees ($1.25 of which was to be paid out of the award, the remainder by defendants). There are a lot of issues, a good number of them with some procedural bearing.