Is the bar too high for survey evidence in wage and hour cases?

In 2004 California Federal Court case, Marlo v. UPS, the court excluded the plaintiff's survey evidence in a misclassification case. The plaintiff's hired a survey firm to ask UPS employees about the duties that they performed. Based on the survey, the plaintiffs expert opined that the UPS workers were misclassified as exempt from overtime payments.

The defendant's motion questioned the reliability of the survey and the qualifications of the plaintiff's expert.

Over the next few post, we will be discussing the ins and outs of this case.