Optional Info

Any information can be placed in the sidebar to help your website visitors navigate your site.

To make a boxed heading like the one above, simply apply the H3 tag.

To make a box like this, assign the "sidebarlt" class.

You can do anything with a sidebar box. Insert images, ads or other web content.

Here's a text link.

To make a box like this, assign the "sidebardk" class.

You can do anything with a sidebar box. Insert images, ads or other web content.

Here's a text link.

 

History of the TV Writers’ Cases

 

The procedural history of the TV Writers’ Cases is set forth in detail in Alch, et al. v. Time Warner Entertainment, et al., 122 Cal. App. 4th 339 (2004) review den'd 2004 Cal. LEXIS 12622 (December 22, 2004) and in Alch v. Superior Court, 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412, review den'd 2008 Cal. LEXIS 12786 (October 28, 2008) and is briefly reiterated here. The complete opinions are available by clicking on the citation to each decision in the paragraph above.

 

On October 23, 2000, this litigation began with the filing of a complaint in federal court on behalf of an alleged class against numerous television studios, networks and talent agencies -- the defendants -- alleging age discrimination in connection with the selection and representation of television writers. After this federal action was dismissed on January 24, 2002, with leave to amend certain claims, in Wynn v. National Broadcasting Company, Inc., 234 F. Supp. 2d 1067 (2002), the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the action and, on February 25, 2002, filed twenty-three separate complaints in Los Angeles Superior Court against the same defendants, including the parties to this Settlement. These complaints were based primarily on alleged violations of three California statutes: the Fair Employment and Housing Act, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, and (following amendment) California’s Unfair Competition Law.

 

The parties have litigated the cases aggressively over ten years in the trial courts before five judges who were assigned one or more of the 23 cases. During this period, 20 of the named plaintiffs passed away. The named Plaintiffs produced tens of thousands of pages of documents and responded cumulatively to thousands of interrogatories. They obtained responses from the defendants to 136 interrogatories regarding their employment, representation, and other practices. They appealed adverse decisions on five occasions. Two appeals reached the California Supreme Court. Despite these efforts, discovery was still at an incipient stage, and final resolution years away.

 

After 3 years of negotiations that were assisted at various times by two nationally known mediators, Hunter Hughes and Linda Singer, and by the Honorable Anthony J. Mohr, who was appointed to preside over a settlement conference, plaintiffs and the defendants in 19 cases have now agreed to a settlement under which those defendants and their insurers will pay collectively $70 million to settle the age discrimination claims of the named plaintiffs and the proposed classes. Together with the unrelated settlements in three other cases, this leaves the case against only one defendant, the Creative Artists Agency, not subject to a proposed or entered settlement agreement.

 

The settlement agreements in the 19 cases have been submitted to the Court for approval. Preliminary approval was granted on January 22, 2010, and a hearing on final approval is set for May 5, 2010. You can read the terms of the settlements in the notice to the Class, or in the settlement agreements themselves, all of which are published on this Web site.

 

Paul Sprenger of Washington, DC, has acted as Lead Class Counsel for the named plaintiffs and the proposed classes. He has been advised by a steering committee of seven attorneys of record for plaintiffs and a liaison committee of six named plaintiffs. You also can read about the attorneys who have represented the class, and the liaison committee members, on this Web site.