Overtime-guilty misdemeanor theft in criminal, suing in civil for overtime determination per FLSA

[twsjr]

Accountant/Bookkeeper - Florida

Part of my duties were to distribute electronically the weekly approved payroll. In Sept 2017 on a Tuesday I decided to quit and processed my overtime. The owner stated I was the Controller and didn't have the right/entitlement to process my overtime and had me arrested for grand theft (>$300) stating I knowingly and unlawfully obtained the funds by use of the computer using the payroll software program. I plead to misdemeanor petit theft per the judgment. I also paid the money back in full to escrow before the plea deal. The Florida statute listed on the State charge case letter sent to me is Chapter 812.014(2)(c)(1).

I have now filed a small claims suit against this employer claiming I was miss-classified as a salaried exempt employee and should have been classified as a salaried non-exempt.

I have been recently told that because I plead guilty in the criminal case of theft that it will override the civil claim and I will lose and possibly have to pay my employer's legal fees. I have also been told after the criminal judgment that small claims court is an option.

I'm confused. I understand the two are related but the criminal case is about theft and the civil case is about the FLSA Regulations, 29 C.F.R. Part 541. By pleading guilty to the theft am I also agreeing to an exempt status per the FLSA? That doesn't make sense to me since the charge per the Florida Statutes is grand theft, 3rd degree (greater than $750 less than $5,000).

 

[Taxing Matters]

By pleading guilty to the theft am I also agreeing to an exempt status per the FLSA?

There are two problems for you that I see. The first is that when you plead guilty to the theft, you agreed that the facts stated in plea that were the basis for the crime were true. So what exactly where the facts that were included in the plea? Did those facts include an admission that you were the controller of the company, for example? Those facts will be used against you in the civil suit, since your plea is an admission to those facts. And if those facts support that you were a controller and thus exempt then your lawsuit would fail. I have not read the facts that were entered with the plea so I cannot say how they might impact your civil suit.

The second is that theft is a crime of dishonesty. Your conviction on the plea agreement could therefore be brought up in court in an effort to impeach your credibility. That may lead the judge to put significantly less weight on your testimony.

 

[quincy]

Did you plead guilty or nolo contendere ("I do not wish to contend")?

Did you have an attorney advising you?

 

[cbg]

There is also the point that small claims is the wrong venue for a determination of exempt status. See my three other answers elsewhere.

 

[HighwayMan]

I have been recently told...

I have also been told...

By whom?

 

[Taxing Matters]

There is also the point that small claims is the wrong venue for a determination of exempt status.

Well, the word venue is not what you wanted. There are two concepts relating to courts that nonlawyers seem to often confuse, jurisdiction and venue. Jurisdiction refers to the power of a court (e.g. county court, circuit court, etc) to hear a particular kind of claim or action. For example, in Florida county courts currently have jurisdiction to hear, among other things, a civil claim seeking a money judgment that does not exceed $15,000 (it goes up to $30,000 in 2020 and to $50,000 in 2023). But there is more than one county court in Florida; each county has one. So once you have a case that you know may be filed in county court the next question is in which county do you file? Venue is the term used for that. The venue rules tell you in which court locations (e.g. which county) you may file the case. Basically, jurisdiction tells you which kind of court(s) have the power to hear a claim and venue tells you in what location (which courthouse) the claim may be filed

So I think what you intended to say is that small claims lacks jurisdiction to hear a claim involving the determination of exempt status. And in Florida that is not the case. I'll break this down to explain why. Let's start with what the OP said:

I have now filed a small claims suit against this employer claiming I was miss-classified as a salaried exempt employee and should have been classified as a salaried non-exempt.

Of course, the OP likely means something a bit different from that. He/she wouldn't sue simply for a determination that he was misclassified as that would be pointless because it wouldn't get him/her anything. What the OP would really be suing for is the unpaid wages (money) that he or she claims the employer owes him/her because of the misclassification.

So the question then is what court has the jurisdiction to hear that claim? The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) sets the federal law on minimum wage and overtime. FSLA is codifed at 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. Section 216(b) provides that an employee may sue the employer for the unpaid wages "in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction." Florida's minimum wage law is found at Florida Statutes section 448.110. Subsection 6(a) provides that an employee "may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against an employer violating this section".

In short, claims under both federal and Florida state law for violations of minimum wage and overtime rules may be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction in the state. That's pretty broad. The Congress and state legislature wanted to give employees as much flexibility as possible to recover their unpaid wage claims.

Thus the question then becomes, which courts in Florida would have jurisdiction. We look to the general rules for jurisdiction that are set for each court. As I mentioned before, the county courts have jurisdiction to hear, among other things, money claims that do not exceed $15,000 if the case is filed in 2019. Circuit courts may hear those cases where the amount sought exceeds what county courts may hear, i.e. cases of more than $15,000 in 2019. So if the amount of unpaid wages owed is $15,000 or less it is the county court that has jurisdiction to hear it. If it is more than that, it is the circuit court that may hear it.

So far I've not mentioned small claims. The reason for that is Florida, unlike some other states, does not have separate small claims courts. Rather, in Florida small claims actions are cases filed in county court but that use simplified small claims procedures. Cases involving money claims not exceeding $5,000 are eligible for the small claims procedures. But it is still county court and so you look to see first whether county court has jurisdiction to hear it. Then from there it is simply a matter of which rules the court applies to hear the case.

When a FSLA violation is alleged, the case could also be brought in federal court (U.S. district court) too. The federal court would also be able to hear the related state law claim as well.

In short, if the OP's unpaid wages amount to $5,000 or less, the OP may file the claim in county court and use the small claims rules. The OP might also have had the choice to bring the claim in federal court instead if he or she wanted. But federal court would be a lot more expensive and a lot more complex than filing a small claims action.

 

[quincy]

By whom?

If twsjr has not spoken with an attorney yet, now would be a good time to do so. He should not be operating on what someone who is not a lawyer is telling him - or on what he can glean in the way of knowledge from a forum.