Case Types
I mediate California employment disputes in three broad postures—individual claims, class and PAGA actions, and pre-litigation matters. Wage-and-hour issues run through all of them. Here is what each involves, and how mediation moves it toward resolution.
01 Individual Claims
Individual Claims
Individual claims are single-plaintiff matters—one employee, one employer, one set of facts. They are often the most personal cases I mediate, because the dispute is tied to a specific person’s job, livelihood, and account of what happened.
These matters run from FEHA claims—discrimination, harassment, retaliation, failure to accommodate, and wrongful termination—to individual wage-and-hour and Labor Code claims for unpaid overtime, missed meal and rest periods, unreimbursed expenses, or misclassification. Many cases combine the two: a termination that is both discriminatory and tangled up with unpaid wages.
What makes these cases settle is an honest look at value and risk on both sides. The numbers turn on lost earnings, emotional-distress and sometimes punitive exposure, and the FEHA’s fee-shifting, which can make a prevailing employee’s attorney’s fees a significant part of the picture. Mediation lets the parties weigh all of that privately and resolve it on their own terms—with the confidentiality, speed, and certainty a trial cannot offer, and with settlement terms a court cannot order, such as timing, references, and neutral language.
Matters I mediate in this category include:
- Wrongful termination, including termination in violation of public policy
- Discrimination and harassment under the FEHA—race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, and more
- Retaliation and whistleblower claims, including under Labor Code section 1102.5
- Failure to accommodate or to engage in the interactive process
- Individual wage-and-hour claims: overtime, meal and rest periods, minimum wage, off-the-clock work, and final pay
- Expense reimbursement and misclassification disputes
02 Class Actions & PAGA
Class Actions & PAGA
Class and PAGA actions are representative cases—one or more employees standing in for many. In California employment, these are almost always wage-and-hour matters, built on a common policy or practice rather than one person’s circumstances.
A class action aggregates the claims of employees subject to the same practice: off-the-clock work, time-rounding, unpaid premiums for missed meal and rest periods, unreimbursed expenses, noncompliant wage statements, or misclassification across a group. A PAGA action lets an aggrieved employee pursue civil penalties for Labor Code violations on behalf of the state and other employees. The two often travel together in the same case.
These cases live and die on aggregate exposure: the liability theory, the size and definition of the class or aggrieved group, sampling, and the penalty and damages math across thousands of pay periods—all discounted for litigation risk and manageability. They rarely reach a verdict; they settle, and mediation is where the number actually gets built. A mediator here has to do the arithmetic, not just relay it, and has to keep one eye on what a court will approve.
PAGA’s framework has shifted in recent years, with reforms touching manageability, the chance to cure, and how penalties are assessed and shared. A workable settlement has to reflect where the law actually stands, not where it stood five years ago.
A class or PAGA settlement is not final until a court approves it—on fairness, the allocation among class or aggrieved employees, attorney’s fees, service awards, and the state’s PAGA share. I structure deals with that approval in mind, not just the headline number.
Matters I mediate in this category include:
- Off-the-clock and unpaid-time claims
- Meal and rest period premium violations
- Minimum wage, overtime, and time-rounding claims
- Unreimbursed business-expense claims
- Wage statement and recordkeeping violations
- Independent-contractor and exempt misclassification
- PAGA representative actions for Labor Code penalties
03 Pre-Litigation Disputes
Pre-Litigation Disputes
Not every dispute needs a lawsuit first. Many matters reach me at the demand stage, in a severance discussion, or during the PAGA notice period—a point where both sides can already see the shape of the dispute and the cost of fighting it out.
Resolving early is the cheapest, fastest, and most private path. There is no filed complaint on the public record, no years of discovery, and no escalation hardening each side’s position. When an ongoing relationship or a reputation is at stake, early resolution can protect both.
My job at this stage is to bring structure and realism before anyone has dug in—a neutral read on value and risk that helps both sides decide whether a deal now genuinely beats a fight later. Often it does.
Matters I mediate in this category include:
- Demand-stage individual claims, before a complaint is filed
- Severance and separation negotiations
- Early class or representative matters during the PAGA notice period
- Disputes where privacy or an ongoing relationship makes early resolution valuable
Not Sure Where Your Case Fits?
Plenty of matters cross more than one of these categories—a PAGA case built on meal-period violations, say, or a single-plaintiff claim with both FEHA and wage-and-hour components. If you are not certain whether a dispute is a fit, just ask. A short call is usually enough to tell.
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