A company that matches consumers to lawyers is accused in a suit of failing to pay overtime to workers who put in more than 40 hours in a week. Lawyers.com of Basking Ridge, New Jersey faces a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act for alleged failure to comply with overtime laws. The named plaintiff and the class are represented by attorneys Franklin Rooks of Morgan Rooks in Marlton, New Jersey, and James Goodley and Ryan McCarthy of Goodley McCarthy in Philadelphia. The company provides virtual receptionist services in addition to helping prospective clients find a lawyer. The suit was filed on behalf of a class of call center representatives who worked for the company within the past three years and were classified as independent contractors. The sole named plaintiff, Matthew Greenlee of Tuscon, Arizona, claimed he worked Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, responding to phone calls for various law firms that were clients of Lawyers.com. He claimed he was paid a per-minute rate for each call he answered, but he and class members were only paid for the time they were on the phone, acting as a virtual receptionist. "Defendant did not compensate plaintiff and the proposed FLSA class for the time that they were engaged to wait for incoming calls," the suit alleges. In addition, Greenlee allegedly did not get paid an overtime premium for the time worked over 40 hours per week, the suit alleges. Greenlee and the FLSA class are similarly situated because they were all misclassified as independent contractors. Greenlee was allegedly informed he was considered an independent contractor, and not an employee. Yet the company's training manual allegedly refers to workers such as the plaintiff and class members as employees, and a monthly newsletter distributed to Greenlee and other class members allegedly featured an "employee spotlight" that highlighted several independent contractors. The suit describes steps that Lawyer.com allegedly takes to control the manner in which class members do their jobs. Lawyer.com allegedly graded Greenlee and proposed class members on metrics such as whether the customer's phone number was confirmed using proper phrasing, and whether the customer's name was phonetically verified. The company also graded class members on a scale of 0 to 5 on whether the proper tone was used, the suit claims. In addition, Greenlee and the proposed class, who work remotely, were allegedly not required to invest in Lawyer.com with the exception of providing their own computer. The company provided software and tools and paid a monthly stipend for internet access, the suit argued. Given the number of hours that Greenlee and the proposed class worked for Lawyer.com, there was little opportunity to find outside employment, the suit alleges. The suit claimed Lawyer.com exercised control over Greenlee and the proposed FLSA class, and that it acted willfully and with reckless disregard of clearly applicable FLSA provisions by failing to compensate him and the proposed FLSA class at the overtime rate of 150% of their regular rates of pay for the hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. The suit seeks back pay damages, including unpaid wages and overtime wages, prejudgment interest, liquidated damages and penalties, litigation costs, expenses and attorney's fees. Rooks said in a statement, "Misclassified workers experience real economic harm. For example, when a worker is properly classified as an employee, the 15.3% tax that funds Social Security and Medicare, called FICA, is split evenly between the employer and the employee. Because independent contractors are treated as self-employed for tax purposes, they must pay the entire 15.3%. The most significant harm stems from the fact that independent contractors are not paid overtime. This lawsuit seeks to recover the unpaid overtime that workers such as Mr. Greenlee are entitled to for the hours that they worked in excess of 40 per week." Lawyer.com did not respond to a call or an email about the case.