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Judge Rules Against Lady Gaga

Sep 11, 2013  •  Post A Comment

Pop superstar Lady Gaga suffered a setback in court Tuesday when federal judge Paul Gardephe ruled that a $380,000 claim against her by her former personal assistant will go forward, the New York Daily News reports.

The judge decided that a jury should hear the case in which Jennifer O’Neill says she is due the money in overtime pay for time O’Neill says Gaga forced her to be on call.

Gaga tried to have that part of O’Neill’s lawsuit against her thrown out.

"In 2011, Jennifer O’Neill sued Gaga for $380,000 of what she described as unpaid overtime, fuming that she was required to cater to the singer, or at least be on call, at ‘every hour of every day,’" the story reports. "Earlier this year, the ‘Bad Romance’ star asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Paul Gardephe to toss out O’Neill’s claims for on-call pay, arguing that the assistant was allowed to take care of personal business — so long as she had her cell phone with her."

The judge ruled that on-call time can potentially be considered work. "He said it will be up to a jury to decide how much or how little being constantly on call restricted what O’Neill could do in her private time," the story reports.

lady-gaga.pngLady Gaga

2 Comments

  1. This judge’s ruling makes no sense. If Jennifer O’Neill gets any money because she was told to be available to her boss at any time, this will open the floodgates for similar lawsuits. What next? What if a boss says, “I may need to call you this weekend?” Will this be considered “work”? Will making sure you have access to email be considered “work”? This lawsuit is an example of why I am in favor of “Loser Pays” laws. This is where it costs people that file frivolous lawsuits to file that lawsuit. Now, even if Lady Gaga wins, it will cost her thousands of dollars in lawyer fees just to win. And the attorney that filed the lawsuit probably took it on contingency so it will cost Jennifer O’Neill nothing. Considering what lawyers charge, it will probably save Lady Gaga money to settle out of court, even though she would probably win. Win or lose, Lady Gaga loses.

  2. +1 ! this is the problem with the way the system works. just to defend a suit costs thousands of dollars, but the plaintiff attorneys work for a cut of the winnings – there are no penalties for filing BS suits. sets up a decent payday for any plaintiff and leads to an even more litigious society

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