On February 3, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota adopted the parties’ joint stipulation and conditionally certified an FLSA collective action in Rodriguez v. Titan Casing LLC, Case No. 1:16-cv-290. In this Titan Casing oilfield overtime lawsuit, both sides agreed to conditional certification, and the court approved their stipulated notice and consent forms. The Siegel Law Group represented the workers.
Chief Judge Daniel L. Hovland signed the one-page order (Docket No. 32). It addressed a “Joint Stipulation and Proposed Order for Notice to Potential Plaintiffs and Conditional Certification” filed on February 1, 2017 (Docket No. 30). The court wrote that it “ADOPTS the parties’ stipulation and proposed notice and consent in its entirety.”
The order did three things:
The order rests on the parties’ agreement rather than a ruling on a contested motion. The order itself does not describe the workers’ job titles, how they were paid, or who was in the group that would get notice. Those details are in the joint stipulation, which is a separate filing, so this page does not describe them.
Under the FLSA, a worker does not join a collective action automatically; each person must file a written consent with the court. Court-approved notice is often how workers first learn about a case and about their right to opt in.
Here, the order let notice go out on agreed terms. The defense agreed to give the plaintiff the employee information described in the stipulation, which allowed plaintiff’s counsel to send the court-approved notice and consent forms.
An agreed order is not a finding that Titan Casing broke the law or owed anyone overtime. It is an early procedural step, showing only that the parties agreed notice should go out and that the court entered an order allowing it.
As general information, the FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees at least one and one-half times their regular rate for hours over forty in a workweek. Section 216(b) lets employees sue for themselves and other employees who are similarly situated. Those other employees join only by filing written consent with the court.
At the time of this 2017 order, many federal courts used a two-step process. First, a court decided under a lenient standard whether to approve notice; this is called conditional certification. Later, after discovery, the employer could ask the court to decertify the group under a stricter standard. Some federal appeals courts have since changed this approach — the Fifth Circuit in Swales v. KLLM Transport Services (2021) and the Sixth Circuit in Clark v. A&L Homecare & Training Center (2023).
Parties sometimes agree to conditional certification to save time and cost. That kind of agreement does not decide whether the employer is liable. Learn more about how collective action certification works.
This page describes a 2017 court order. The time to join that collective was set by the court in that case. If you have worked in a similar role, the Siegel Law Group can evaluate your own claims.
Did you often work more than forty hours a week without time and a half for the extra hours? A lawyer can review how you were paid. Read more about how FLSA collective actions work, or contact the Siegel Law Group for a free consultation.
Yes. The plaintiff filed a “Joint Stipulation and Proposed Order for Notice to Potential Plaintiffs and Conditional Certification” on February 1, 2017. Two days later, Chief Judge Hovland adopted the parties’ stipulation, notice, and consent form in full. An order entered on an agreement like this lets notice go out, but it does not resolve the underlying pay dispute.
No. The February 2017 order conditionally certified a collective action and approved notice based on the parties’ joint stipulation. It did not decide whether Titan Casing LLC paid anyone correctly. Conditional certification is a preliminary step. It lets other workers learn about a pending lawsuit and choose whether to take part in it.
The February 2017 order required the defense to produce employee information as outlined in the joint stipulation. It then authorized plaintiff’s counsel to send the stipulated notice and consent forms to the people whose names were provided. Under the FLSA, each worker became part of the case only by signing a written consent that was filed with the court. The time to join was set in that case.
The one-page 2017 order does not address deadlines for claims. As general information, each short paycheck generally gives a casing worker two years to sue, extended to three when the violation is willful. A worker who opts in to a collective is generally not treated as having filed until that worker’s signed consent form is filed in the lawsuit. Read our guide to FLSA filing deadlines.
The Siegel Law Group is a national overtime and wage law firm devoted entirely to representing workers denied overtime pay. Where many firms include wage cases as a small part of a broader employment practice, the Siegel Law Group has built its entire practice around overtime litigation — and the results reflect that commitment: $100M+ recovered for workers, 50+ class and collective action certifications, and 100+ federal lawsuits filed in 27+ federal courts nationwide. Founding attorney Jack Siegel is a Bloomberg BNA contributing author on wage and hour law.
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