On April 1, 2013, a group of former mortgage loan file reviewers for The Hilltop Companies, LLC (“Hilltop) filed a proposed collective action lawsuit in Ohio federal court, alleging that the company unlawfully failed to pay them proper overtime wages. The lawsuit alleges that Hilltop violated federal and state overtime laws by failing to pay time-and-a-half overtime to its loan file reviewers. Plaintiffs reviewed mortgage loan files in connection to a mandate by a consent decree between the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) and fourteen large banks, stemming from an investigation into the banks’ improper and abusive foreclosure practices.
According to the Complaint, Defendant willfully misclassified Plaintiffs as “independent contractors”, attempting to evade the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act requirements, resulting in failure to compensate Plaintiffs and those similarly situated at the required overtime rate for all overtime hours worked. Specifically, Hilltop paid these file reviewers on an hourly basis, but violated the law by paying them only “straight time” for their overtime, rather than the required time and a half.
The Hilltop Companies, LLC, which is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, provides Finance & Accounting, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, Operations, Information Technology, and Transaction Services. It provides these services in several industries, including Banking & Capital Markets, Real Estate, and Government Agencies, throughout the United States.
Adam Hansen, who represents the plaintiffs, stated, “The law is straightforward: employees must be paid time and a half for all overtime hours worked. Hilltop paid its workers an hourly rate, but did not pay them the legally-required time and a half for their overtime, instead wrongly classifying its workers as independent contractors. The employees in this case worked long hours, and we intend to recover all the unpaid overtime wages they are owed.”
The plaintiff is represented by Rachhana T. Srey and Adam W. Hansen from Nichols Kaster, PLLP in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Bruce Meizlish and Deborah Grayson from Meizlish & Grayson, Inc. of Cincinnati, OH. The case was filed in federal court in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and is titled Huffman et al v. The Hilltop Companies, LLC, Court File No. 1:13-cv-00219-HJW.
Additional information about this case can be found here or by contacting Nichols Kaster, PLLP, toll-free at (877) 344-4628.