Free Order - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 399

Filed 05/18/2006

Page 1 of 2

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Honorable Marcia S. Krieger Civil Action No. 03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC CAMILLE MELONAKIS-KURZ, individually and on behalf of other similarly situated employees, and OTHER INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE CONSENTED TO JOIN THIS ACTION, Plaintiffs, v. HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE, INC., Defendant.

ORDER APPROVING SETTLEMENT PROCEDURE

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the parties' Stipulation of Settlement (#398). This is a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Stipulation sets forth a procedure to provide all Plaintiffs notice and an opportunity to object to the proposed settlement. The procedure requires the Defendant' counsel to mail for s

each Plaintiff to the Plaintiffs'counsel by May 23, 2006. Immediately thereafter, the Plaintiffs' counsel will mail a Notice of Settlement setting forth the individual offers to each Plaintiff. Each Plaintiff then has 30 days from the date of mailing to object to the settlement as a whole, or to object to his/her settlement payment. Within 5 days after expiration of the objection period, the Defendant will deliver settlement checks of all non-objecting Plaintiffs. Objections to the settlement as a whole will be resolved by the Court; objections as to settlement amount will be resolved by mediation. If mediation is not successful, their claims would be dismissed, without prejudice, so that they can be pursued in separate legal actions.

Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 399

Filed 05/18/2006

Page 2 of 2

Attached to the Stipulation are proposed forms of a Notice of Settlement and Release of Claims. Having considered the process proposed and the form of Notice of Settlement, IT IS ORDERED that: (1) The Court approves the settlement procedure outlined in the Stipulation subject to the following modification. The Notice of Settlement shall be corrected to distinguish between objections to the settlement as a whole (which will be determined by the Court) and objections to the individual allocations provided by the settlement agreement (which will be addressed in mediation). (2) When the requisite time for objections to the settlement has passed, the parties shall notify the Court and shall request a ruling approving the settlement, accompanied by a proposed Order. Dated this 17th day of May, 2006 BY THE COURT:

Marcia S. Krieger United States District Judge

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