What actual financial costs or risks are there for an employee to bring an FLSA case?
A. To some extent this is between the individual employee and the attorney. If the employee hires attorneys on a contingency fee basis, there are no “up front” expenses for legal fees. However, employees are responsible for court costs, such as filing fees, stenographic transcription fees, etc. These may, or may not, be “fronted” by the attorneys, but employees are ultimately responsible for paying (or reimbursing) these expenses. (Court costs are paid by the loser, so employees are actually “on the hook” for these expenses only if they lose the case.) Individual arrangements with particular lawyers may also involve the employees paying some additional expenses directly, or not.
