August 2014 Monthly Independent Contractor Compliance And Misclassification Update

This month's headline development are the seismic decisions, issued on August 27, 2014 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, concluding as a matter of law that FedEx Ground had misclassified over 2,300 drivers in California and a smaller group of drivers in Oregon. The appellate decision reversed a district court decision applicable to over 40 lawsuits filed around the country by FedEx Ground drivers. The Ninth Circuit decision, which is arguably the most significant legal development to date in 2014 in the field of independent contractor misclassification, was based on the court's close examination of the terms of the independent contractor agreement and the policies and procedures used on a nationwide basis by FedEx Ground. This game-changing decision is likely to have broad ramifications across all industries, and cause regulators and class action lawyers to more closely scrutinize independent contractor agreements in an effort to determine if the