Now, this might stir the heartstrings of an attorney who thought they were getting into the profession to represent truth, justice and the American way. But, the chances of the attorney making money would depend on obtaining “reasonable fees and costs” from the responsible corporation, since it would take a good $2000 or more of attorney work product to nail such a defendant. Or, maybe the whole thing is just hopeless. Or, maybe a single letter from an attorney, on letterhead, would bring the company to its senses.

I’m just wondering how one or several dozen situations such as this might change your perspective on the value or satisfaction of practicing law, or, whether the financial and procedural hurdles just add to your general cynicism.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode05/usc_sec_05_00005542—-000-.html

§ 5542. Overtime rates; computation
(a) For full-time, part-time and intermittent tours of duty, hours of work officially ordered or approved in excess of 40 hours in an administrative workweek, or (with the exception of an employee engaged in professional or technical engineering or scientific activities for whom the first 40 hours of duty in an administrative workweek is the basic workweek and an employee whose basic pay exceeds the minimum rate for GS–10 (including any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 or similar provision of law and any applicable special rate of pay under section 5305 or similar provision of law) for whom the first 40 hours of duty in an administrative workweek is the basic workweek) in excess of 8 hours in a day, performed by an employee are overtime work and shall be paid for, except as otherwise provided by this subchapter, at the following rates:
(1) For an employee whose basic pay is at a rate which does not exceed the minimum rate of basic pay for GS–10 (including any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 or similar provision of law and any applicable special rate of pay under section 5305 or similar provision of law), the overtime hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to one and one-half times the hourly rate of basic pay of the employee, and all that amount is premium pay.
(2) For an employee whose basic pay is at a rate which exceeds the minimum rate of basic pay for GS–10 (including any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 or similar provision of law and any applicable special rate of pay under section 5305 or similar provision of law), the overtime hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to the greater of one and one-half times the hourly rate of the minimum rate of basic pay for GS–10 (including any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 or similar provision of law and any applicable special rate of pay under section 5305 or similar provision of law) or the hourly rate of basic pay of the employee, and all that amount is premium pay.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection for an employee of the Department of Transportation who occupies a nonmanagerial position in GS–14 or under and, as determined by the Secretary of Transportation,
(A) the duties of which are critical to the immediate daily operation of the air traffic control system, directly affect aviation safety, and involve physical or mental strain or hardship;
(B) in which overtime work is therefore unusually taxing; and
(C) in which operating requirements cannot be met without substantial overtime work;
the overtime hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to one and one-half times the hourly rate of basic pay of the employee, and all that amount is premium pay.
(4) Notwithstanding paragraph (2) of this subsection, for an employee who is a law enforcement officer, and whose basic pay is at a rate which exceeds the minimum rate of basic pay for GS–10 (including any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 or similar provision of law and any applicable special rate of pay under section 5305 or similar provision of law), the overtime hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to the greater of—
(A) one and one-half times the minimum hourly rate of basic pay for GS–10 (including any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 or similar provision of law and any applicable special rate of pay under section 5305 or similar provision of law); or
(B) the hourly rate of basic pay of the employee,
and all that amount is premium pay.
(5) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), for an employee of the Department of the Interior or the United States Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture engaged in emergency wildland fire suppression activities, the overtime hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to one and one-half times the hourly rate of basic pay of the employee, and all that amount is premium pay.
(b) For the purpose of this subchapter—
(1) unscheduled overtime work performed by an employee on a day when work was not scheduled for him, or for which he is required to return to his place of employment, is deemed at least 2 hours in duration; and
(2) time spent in a travel status away from the official-duty station of an employee is not hours of employment unless—
(A) the time spent is within the days and hours of the regularly scheduled administrative workweek of the employee, including regularly scheduled overtime hours; or
(B) the travel
(i) involves the performance of work while traveling,
(ii) is incident to travel that involves the performance of work while traveling,
(iii) is carried out under arduous conditions, or
(iv) results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively, including travel by an employee to such an event and the return of such employee from such event to his or her official-duty station.
(c) Subsection (a) shall not apply to an employee who is subject to the overtime pay provisions of section 7 of the Fair labor [1] Standards Act of 1938. In the case of an employee who would, were it not for the preceding sentence, be subject to this section, the Office of Personnel Management shall by regulation prescribe what hours shall be deemed to be hours of work and what hours of work shall be deemed to be overtime hours for the purpose of such section 7 so as to ensure that no employee receives less pay by reason of the preceding sentence.
(d) In applying subsection (a) of this section with respect to any criminal investigator who is paid availability pay under section 5545a—
(1) such investigator shall be compensated under such subsection (a), at the rates there provided, for overtime work which is scheduled in advance of the administrative workweek—
(A) in excess of 10 hours on a day during such investigator’s basic 40 hour workweek; or
(B) on a day outside such investigator’s basic 40 hour workweek; and
(2) such investigator shall be compensated for all other overtime work under section 5545a.
(e) Notwithstanding subsection (d)(1) of this section, all hours of overtime work scheduled in advance of the administrative workweek shall be compensated under subsection (a) if that work involves duties as authorized by section 3056 (a) of title 18 or section 37(a)(3) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956, and if the investigator performs, on that same day, at least 2 hours of overtime work not scheduled in advance of the administrative workweek.
(f) In applying subsection (a) of this section with respect to a firefighter who is subject to section 5545b—
(1) such subsection shall be deemed to apply to hours of work officially ordered or approved in excess of 106 hours in a biweekly pay period, or, if the agency establishes a weekly basis for overtime pay computation, in excess of 53 hours in an administrative workweek; and
(2) the overtime hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to one and one-half times the hourly rate of basic pay under section 5545b (b)(1)(A) or (c)(1)(B), as applicable, and such overtime hourly rate of pay may not be less than such hourly rate of basic pay in applying the limitation on the overtime rate provided in paragraph (2) of such subsection (a).

I must say. I stumbled on your blog when doing some research into whether or not I should apply to law school. I’ve enjoyed the archives and was pleasantly surprised to see you have a new post.

Here is the cool part, you described on one of your posts this environment of computers, contracts, and people shopping online – and it hit me. All these people are shopping online. So what did I do instead of law school?

Turns out the same thing you did.

I’d love to hear more about your online ventures, as I have begun diving in myself. I’m in DC. dupont.

Best.