Jones v. Smith

ROBERT M. LEVY, United States Magistrate Judge

This case raises the important question of whether defendants, solely due to their notoriety or celebrity, may enter into confidential settlements of claims against them made under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq. It is, in other words, about whether parties may assert a "celebrity exception" to the general rules that FLSA settlements must be filed publicly, and that confidentiality provisions in those agreements are impermissible. Because I find that such an exception has no basis in law, and would contravene the…