In 2003, a group of field workers for an oil well maintenance company filed a class action against their employer, Pool Well Services, Inc. (Cortez v. Pool Well Services, Inc., Ventura County Superior Court Case No.CIV 222363) alleging claims for travel pay and meal period violations. The trial court certified a class of 2,649 current and former workers, and then sent the case to binding arbitration on a classwide basis. In late 2005, the parties arbitrated the case before retired Justice Richard Neal.
On February 6, 2006, Justice Neal awarded the workers $26.5 million. The employees will receive between $5,000 to $50,000 each. Because the ruling came after a binding arbitration, the award cannot be appealed.
The class members were represented by the law firm of McTague & Palay. The defendants Pool Well Services, Inc. and its successor entity, Nabors Well Services, Inc. were represented by the law firms of Fisher & Phillips and Littler Mendelson. The decision to take this case to decision may turn out to be disastrous for the decision-makers at Nabors. The firm had previously lost several California Labor Board cases involving the same issues, making an adverse award quite foreseeable. Worse, the most recent SEC quartlerly and annual filings do not list the case as a pending material litigation matter. The stock has fallen from 81 to 68 since the announcement of the award. Perhaps the next class action will be a shareholder case.
THey still have not given us our money!??
Posted by: Rickey | June 27, 2006 at 07:08 PM
when are we getting our $ and who is keeping all the intrest
Posted by: James | July 25, 2006 at 05:51 PM
We are not privy to the payout timetable. Nabors is not our case.
Posted by: michael walsh | July 26, 2006 at 12:35 PM
I think we are going to get our money by last name 26.5 milllion to split between 2,649 people thers gonna be a lot of left overs hopefuly we all get what we worked hard for and deserve when this started i was sopose to get 77.6k what the lawyers said now it came down to 5k-50k thats sounds bad now from bakersfield Ca
Posted by: Walter rivera | July 31, 2006 at 06:02 PM
oh forgot to mention lawyers take half
Posted by: Walter rivera | July 31, 2006 at 06:03 PM
The $5K to $50K depends on the employee. Some of those guys only worked a few months. Should they all get $50K?
Posted by: | July 31, 2006 at 11:29 PM
whos collecting the interest
Posted by: james | August 09, 2006 at 08:00 AM
Does anyone find it funny that although they are willing to take a hefty amount of our money to litigate this class action, they are unwilling to discuss the case directly and we are instructed to call Rosenthal & Co. Don't they represent all of us, not just Chris Cortez????
Posted by: Eric | August 25, 2006 at 01:29 PM
It is suppose to be on the 15th of september. has that date changed again this has been going on for months and months and months
Posted by: no name | September 07, 2006 at 04:15 PM
My husband was told the checks were supposed to be written the 25th of August. They are just getting the run around. UGH
Posted by: | September 09, 2006 at 12:47 AM
Okay,
Can someone clear something up for me, as I am a bit confused and not understanding the way the money breaks down. People I have kept in touch with at Pool, who worked there during the same time period or a little longer or shorter time, recieved WELL UNDER the five thousand dollar mark I was there ten years and recieved well under one thousand. I am curious to know,if my friend~who was there fifteen years got well under 5k and I got under 1k, just where did the rest of the 26.5 Million go, DO we figure half went to lawyers and then our few dollars and change, the rest going to the accountants?
Posted by: puppet | September 15, 2006 at 04:43 PM
My husband worked there a year before this was filed. His check came today. After they took out over $2200.00 for taxes and whatnot, he got a little over $3000.00
Come one , I don't think the taxes is really $2200.00! What is up with that? Something isn't right.
Posted by: | September 15, 2006 at 10:53 PM
i have a question, i was informed that each individual settlement was determined by the amount of hours one worked, i was an employee of pool/nabors since 2001 and i received under 1k. i believe there should be a gross wages breakdown for each employee not just a tax deduction breakdown.
Posted by: beau | September 16, 2006 at 01:48 PM
My husband worked for Pool over 4 years, 80-100 hour weeks and received 31.11. How is that possible? They told us to contact the arbitrator for a breakdown. Who is the arbitrator? Men that worked with my husband around the same time frame received 3000-5000.
Posted by: ginni | September 17, 2006 at 12:24 PM
My husband was told he was in one of the highest paying groups he worked directly with Cortez and the others who opened this law suit I guess though we will see when the check gets here.
Posted by: Myers | September 17, 2006 at 10:37 PM
The arbitrator was Justice Neal. My husband has worked there for 7 years and we got $1900! It feels like being robbed twice! His buddy he works with got $30,000 and they have worked there for the same amount of time. We are not cashing the checks, I am going to call a lawyer and see if there is anything that can be done. When it was still at the attorneys office we were told we were suppossed to recieve around $100,000.
Posted by: Eric Fry | September 18, 2006 at 05:52 AM
Does anyone know how the amounts are broken down? It seems like people who worked the same years and amount of hours are being paid drastically different.
Posted by: ginni | September 18, 2006 at 09:53 AM
Okay, folks. We just reported it. We aren't the lawyers on this case, and we didn't intend for this to become the Nabors lawyer bashing headquarters, so we're closing the comments on this thread. If you are part of the Nabors class, and you have questions, pose them to the class counsel, or go hire another lawyer to advise you.
Posted by: michael walsh | September 18, 2006 at 12:02 PM