BB&K Partner John Higginbotham represented a local trucking company in a overtime class action involving a class of over 200 drivers, none of whom had ever been paid overtime. The class was represented by a successful attorney who had achieved large settlements from numerous other similarly situated trucking companies in the five years leading up to this case. Rather than simply going through the motions and ultimately allowing its client to write a very large check, BB&K asserted a novel defense that California’s overtime was preempted by federal law due to the fact that some of the product hauled by its client had previously been brought into California by rail, and that the ultimate delivery of the product by truck was a “continuation” of interstate commerce. Facing the prospect of complete defeat, the class settled the claim for literally pennies on the dollar.