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There are a couple of threads being played out in the brief decision in Bertrand v. Jefferson Parish, No. 22-1618, 2022 WL 17814243 (E.D. La. Dec. 1, 2022).
One thread is that that litigating parties want to conceal the fact, amount, terms and conditions of their settlement agreements. They don't want other people to find out why they are settling, and for what, even if other people have the same reasons to sue that the plaintiffs in this case had. See Bertrand v. Jefferson Parish, 2022 WL 17812423, at *1.
The twenty plaintiffs in this case were all employees of the Parish (county). They filed their complaint alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Bertrand v. Jefferson Parish, 2022 WL 17812423, at *1.
The plaintiffs-employees and their defendant employer jointly filed a motion to seal their settlement agreements. Even though this was a Joint Motion, the Court denied this request. Bertrand v. Jefferson Parish, 2022 WL 17812423, at *1.
There were two bases for the Court's short decision in this case. One was the common law presumption of public access to Court files. In this case, the settlement documents were filed in the Court file. There was a resulting presumption that the documents would be available to the public.
The other basis for the Court's decision was the fact that in FLSA cases in particular, there is a strong presumption of keeping the settlement documents open and available to the public. The parties can overcome the common law presumption of public access by offering "extraordinary reasons," but in this case the parties did not offer any.
The Court gave the parties an out, however:
For the reasons that follow, the Court DENIES the Motion to Seal and grants the parties fourteen (14) days to advise the Court whether they continue to request approval of the settlement, with the understanding that the settlement, if approved, will be approved by separate order, not under seal, and that the settlement agreements will be unsealed on the record.
Bertrand v. Jefferson Parish, 2022 WL 17812423, at *1.
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