On April 15, 2008, plaintiff Evangelina Arvizu, a legal secretary in her 60s, began working for the Law Offices of Matison & Margolese, ALC and by October 2008, Arvizu claimed she accumulated nearly $14,000 in unpaid overtime. When she was questioned about this, she claimed her supervising lawyer had authorized the overtime. However, the managing partner, Vana Margolese, could not check this information with her supervising attorney because she had left the firm. As a result, Margolese offered Arvizu an accommodation to work off the overtime by working a 32-hour week, while getting paid for 40 hours. In addition Arvizu took extensive vacations and long lunch hours. On Jan. 27, 2008, Arvizu abruptly left the firm. After initially saying she had a medical appointment, Arvizu later claimed she had actually fallen on her last day in the office, suggesting a worker’s compensation claim. However, this fall was disputed by both the lawyers in the firm and the building security card records, and the claim was later abandoned. Arvizu claimed that upon leaving the company, she was owed overtime pay, penalties and attorney fees. Arvizu sued Margolese, as well as the firm, for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Defense counsel argued that Arvizu’s overtime claim was a fraud and contended that her supervising attorney denied giving Arvizu authority to work overtime. Additionally, counsel contended that Arvizu had not turned her alleged overtime hours into payroll, but, instead, attempted to secretly keep her alleged overtime records away from her supervisor between April 2008 and late-September 2008. Defense counsel also presented security records from the building where Matison & Margolese is located and contended that these records showed no entries to support that Arvizu had worked the hours she claimed. The defense’s expert certified public accountant testified that, even accepting Arvizu’s version of how many hours she worked, Arvizu had been overpaid by $5,000. According to defense counsel, evidence that Arvizu had made similar claims at two prior employers was rejected by the court before trial., Arvizu filed for recovery of both federal and state benefits. According to defense counsel, Arvizu’s original complaint stated that she was owed overtime pay, penalties and attorney fees in amount of $65,000, but that her initial claim presented in October 2008 was for about $14,000. Defense counsel further claimed that the numbers varied later as Arvizu generated additional claims and that at trial, Arvizu claimed $6,126 was owed pursuant to her Fair Labor Standards Act state claim and $12,204.38 was owed pursuant to her federal claim.