$27M Lyft Driver Lawsuit Settlement Nears Approval by Calif. Judge

The ever-growing popularity of the ride sharing company, Lyft, hasn’t made a difference to drivers who claim they were shorted tips and overtime pay that were due them.

The recent massive Lyft driver lawsuit seems to be coming to an end as parties near agreement on a settlement.

Recently, a California judge indicated that he would most likely approve a $27 million settlement resolving allegations that Lyft didn’t pay its drivers what they were due including tips and expenses.

Allegations in Lyft Driver Lawsuit

This Lyft driver lawsuit claims that the company misclassified workers as independent contractors when they should have been classified as employees.

At the recent hearing U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria took into consideration the Lyft driver lawsuit provision for releasing future claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) as well as some driver objections to the way the class was notified.

These objections were only some of several to this proposed $27 million settlement. This comes on the heels of an early proposed $12 million offer that was previously rejected by the court.

In this Lyft driver lawsuit, the objectors argued that some class members did not receive a notice regarding a motion for attorney’s fees and that they were not given enough time to file objections.

The objectors also noted that the proposed settlement was not posted online.

One of the representing attorneys for the objectors argued that the proposed multiplier for the full-time drivers’ claims versus part time drivers’ claims was too low.

He noted that full-time drivers should be entitled to four times as much as part-time drivers because they suffered more from the alleged overtime and misclassification violations.

According to the Lyft driver lawsuit, full-time drivers would be paid only twice as much as part-time drivers.

The attorney for the settling Lyft drivers said that this FSLA issue was not very important. She stated that a notice went out in August and since then, 84,000 Lyft drivers have submitted claims. She notes that this is a rate that is “quite high and quite phenomenal.”

She went on to say that the claim-filing deadline hasn’t passed yet and that drivers may still submit claims. Additional notices, she says, could still be sent out to potential claimants.

Judge Chhabria responded by saying that the multiplier could be negotiated under the terms of the deal and that even though the issues regarding class notification were “less than ideal,” they weren’t a deal breaker. He also wondered why it wasn’t posted online.

If the deal for this Lyft driver lawsuit is approved, it would put an end to 3 years of litigation regarding the alleged misclassification of the ride-sharing company workers. It originally began as a nationwide class action, however later it was narrowed to include only California drivers.

The Lyft Driver Lawsuit is Cotter et al. v. Lyft Inc. et al., Case No. 3:13-­cv-­04065, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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