re: AL-ALI v. The UNITED STATES
U.S. Court of Federal Claims Case No. 05-1227C
Update: November 20, 2006
We are pleased to inform you that a settlement agreement has been reached in the above-entitled matter! To view a copy of the terms of the settlement agreement please click here.
Pursuant to the terms of the settlement, each of you will be awarded damages in the amount of your respective back pay for two years prior to the date of filing of the complaint (November 21, 2005), or the amended complaint (January 13, 2006), depending on which is applicable to you, until the government converts your status to FLSA non-exempt. In accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement, the government will have six (6) months from the date of execution of the settlement agreement to pay the gross amount of all plaintiffs' damages to our office. However, any period of time spent by plaintiffs' to review the calculations will not count toward this six (6) month time frame and will, in fact, extend for the duration of plaintiffs' review period.
The defendants (the government) will soon begin the arduous task of calculating and determining the amounts to be awarded to each of you. Once this information is determined, the government will provide our office with the information along with the individual calculation sheets for each of you to review. Upon receipt of this information by our office, we will forward it to each of you for review. Once this information has been forwarded to you, you will be asked to report any discrepancies concerning your individual calculations to our office within a very short time frame. As stated above, the time spent to review your calculations will not count towards the six (6) month time frame for the government to make final payment. Therefore, it is extremely important for you to keep our office informed of your current mailing address to ensure timely receipt of this information. Failure by you to report discrepancies concerning your individual calculations within the time frame given will be viewed as acceptance of and agreement to the information provided.
Once the final amounts have been determined and agreed to by each of you, the government will make one lump sum payment to our client trust account. Our office will then issue and distribute final payment checks to each of you in accordance with your final calculations. We will also deduct attorneys fees from your final payment pursuant to the legal services agreement signed by each you at the onset of this litigation. Defendants (the government) will not have any responsibility regarding the final distribution of payments made to each of you.
Before final payments can be made, each of you will be required to complete and return a Form W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification). This form, along with a self-address stamped return envelope, was included in the notice of settlement recently mailed to each of you. Please note that you will not be sent your final payment until you have returned a completed and signed original Form W-9 to our office. If you have misplaced or lost your Form-W9, you may also access this form on the IRS' website at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf?portlet=3.
Our office will also responsible for reporting these payments to the IRS and for preparing Miscellaneous Income Form 1099's. It is strongly recommended that you contact your accountant or tax preparer/advisor regarding any income or taxes for which you may be liable from the outcome of this settlement.
We are pleased to have reached a settlement agreement with the government in this matter. Please remember to keep your mailing address updated with our office until you have received your final payment.
We will continue to post any significant developments on our website therefore, please feel free to check it periodically. In the meantime, if you need to contact our office for any reason, please direct all inquiries to the following persons:
Julie
Buechler, Esq. Catherine Bond,
Paralegal
Email: Julie@coplaw.org
Email: Cathy@coplaw.org
BOBBITT, PINCKARD & FIELDS, APC
8388 Vickers Street
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 467-1199; (858) 467-1285 FAX