William G. Short, Esq.

Law Offices of

William G. Short

Employment, Contracts, Commercial Collections & Class Actions

PRACTICE

AREAS:

EMPLOYMENT LAW

Among the sins that "cry out to heaven" is the withholding of a laborer's wage. If you have worked more than 40 hours in a week, or more than 8 hours in a day, and you're not a manager, you likely should be receiving overtime pay, that is, wages at 1.5 times your regular hourly rate.

CONTRACTS

Contracts are the stuff of daily life, and we rely on the promises of others. Certainly no business can long survive if vendors, customers, or sub-contractors fail to live up to their promises.

COMMERCIAL COLLECTIONS

Unfortunately, there is nothing so common as a hard working business person who has diligently supplied a product or service, and who then discovers that the customer will not pay.

CLASS ACTIONS

We have had great success obtaining payment for our clients using class actions. Examples include earned overtime pay, earned leave time, excessive credit card interest, and misrepresented bank lending charges.

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WHAT WE DO:

The client, R.C.,* arrived upset, confused, and angry. His long-time employer, Sourthern California's largest energy company, had acknowledged that it had not paid him for his overtime for four years. But it still refused to pay him what it owed. The difference was significant. The company offered about $25,000 in unpaid overtime. But it owed closer to $60,000. R.C. turned out to be only one of over 1,300 other employees of this company who were similarly refused their overtime backpay.

We sued the company in Los Angeles Superior Court, using a class action lawsuit. After nearly 4 years of aggressive litigation, the matter settled. The company agreed to pay R.C., and 1,300 of his fellow employees, a total of $29 million.

This case illustrates the kind of commitment we have to our clients when they come to us for help.

Let us assist you with your matter.

* Initials used to preserve confidentiality.

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William G. Short, Esq

Significant Results and Achievements:

During litigation, obtained court order forcing opposing lawyer to turn over his entire client file by arguing the fraud exception to attorney client privilege in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. The case soon concluded with a $1.4 million judgment.
In one litigation matter, obtained court rulings that: 1) an employer and its successive law offices waived the protections of attorney-client privilege and attorney work product doctrine; 2) the employer and its two lawyers' offices submit every phone and computer to a forensic examination; 3) the employer's representative and lawyer each pay $500 in daily coercive sanctions; and 4) the employer's representative and lawyer were "to appear and show cause why they should not be ordered to submit themselves for [Federal] incarceration." The class action soon concluded with a $4.6 million settlement.

Litigated and recovered significant settlements from the City of Menlo Park, City of Los Angeles, Cal State University, UCLA, and from private individuals for free speech violations.
In excess of $35 million in judgments and settlements obtained on behalf of employees, including $29 million in R.C. v. S.C.E. (Los Angeles Superior Court) on behalf of 1,300 energy employees; $850,000 in Tresky v. Global Integrated Security (U.S. District Court, E.D. Virginia) on behalf of 120 State Department security contractors in Iraq; $400,000 in Yan v. LLP Global, Inc. (Los Angeles Superior Court) on behalf of 107 shipping employees; $100,000 in Qin v. Kwan (Ventura Superior Court) on behalf of a cook; $625,000 in Zheng v. CTour Express LLC (Los Angeles Superior Court) on behalf of 281 tour guides and drivers; $4.4 million in W.D. v. L.S.I. (Los Angeles Superior Court/C.D California Bankruptcy Court) on behalf of 1,390 restaurant workers, after nearly five years of bankruptcy litigation where the restaurant chain claimed it had no assets.

Briefed and argued appeal of Anti-SLAPP (C.C.P. § 425.16) ruling before the California Court of Appeals and successfully preserved essential causes of action in the final decision. J. Kiely Ball, et al. v. Sandee Saurman, B258634 (2nd District, December 8, 2015)

Instructor in attorney seminars on advanced commercial collection techniques.
Court-appointed arbitrator and mediator in Ventura and San Mateo Counties.
Awarded "AV Preeminent" rating by Martindale-Hubbell since 2012, a rating defined as: "a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him at the highest level of professional excellence."

Significant Prior Work Experience:

Counsel, United States Senate, Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts

Washington, D.C.

Counsel to Senator Mitch McConnell, Impeachment Trial Committee

Impeachment of United States District Judge Harry E. Claiborne, District of Nevada

United States Senate, Washington, D.C.

Vice President & General Counsel, Pacific Specialty Insurance Company

Menlo Park, California

Education:

B.A., Thomas Aquinas College

Santa Paula, California

J.D., University of Notre Dame School of Law

South Bend, Indiana

Thomas J. White Scholar

Bar Admissions:

California
Pennsylvania (inactive)

judgment, debt, payroll, deductions, timeclock, reimbursement, sue, employer, employee, sweatshop, time and a half, double time, late, rest breaks, meal breaks, pay stubs, wage statements, california labor code, flsa, fair labor standards act, injunction, paga, private attorney general, ojai lawyer, ventura lawyer, ojai attorney, ventura attorney

ATTORNEYS

CONTACT

INFORMATION:

Law Office of William G. Short

PO Box 1313

California 93024-1313

Email: billshortesq@icloud.com
Tel: 805-490-6399

Fax: 253-650-2627

For any general inquiries, please fill in the following contact form:

contact

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