Good legal writing is an important skill.
The failure to properly draft a contract or a legislative
provision can have significant consequences for parties who believe
that a document or provision says one thing, when it actually means
something else.
As recently determined in O'Connor v. Oakhurst
Dairy (United States Court of Appeal, 1st Circ., March 13,
2017), the omission of a comma from an exemption under Maine's
overtime law may cost an employer millions.
Whereas delivery truck drivers claimed entitlement to years of
unremitted overtime pay, their employer contended that they were
disentitled to overtime pay because a particular statutory
exemption applied to them.
The specific statutory exemption provided that the protection of
Maine's overtime law did not apply to:
