{"id":3206,"date":"2026-09-08T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2026-09-08T12:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:00:15","slug":"one-step-at-a-time-another-district-court-rejects-the-lusardi-bifurcated-discovery-and-conditional-certification-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2026\/09\/08\/one-step-at-a-time-another-district-court-rejects-the-lusardi-bifurcated-discovery-and-conditional-certification-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"One Step At A Time: Another District Court Rejects The Lusardi Bifurcated Discovery And Conditional Certification Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Mike Rosenblatt, and Anna Sheridan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Duane Morris Takeaways:<\/em><\/strong> On September 3, 2026, in Harris, et al. v. Shoe Show, Inc., No. 3:25-CV-00398 (W.D.N.C. Sept. 3, 2026), Judge Susan C. Rodriguez denied <\/a>Plaintiffs\u2019 pre-discovery motion for conditional certification of an FLSA collective action and granted Defendant\u2019s emergency motion for expedited, single stage discovery.\u00a0 The decision joins the growing trend of courts declining to bifurcate FLSA discovery into conditional certification and post-conditional certification stages.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiffs Benjamin Harris and Marticilla Roberts brought suit against Shoe Show, Inc., alleging violations of the Fair Labor Stands Act (\u201cFLSA\u201d).  According to the Complaint, filed June 11, 2025, Defendant Shoe Show, Inc. allegedly failed to pay store managers for all overtime hours worked.  Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that they were required to communicate with co-workers and supervisors about work-related matters outside of the store while off-the-clock.  The Complaint defined Plaintiffs\u2019 proposed FLSA collective action as \u201call hourly-paid and overtime-eligible Store Managers, who worked over 40 hours in any workweek for Defendant\u201d for the prior three plus years (the alleged lookback period was slightly longer than the typical three years for an FLSA claim due to an alleged tolling agreement).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 25, 2025, Plaintiffs filed a pre-discovery motion for conditional certification of a collective action under FLSA \u00a7 216(b).  On July 28, 2025, Defendant filed a motion to expedite discovery and requested a stay on briefing on Plaintiffs\u2019 pre-discovery motion for conditional certification.  Defendant\u2019s motion stated that Plaintiffs used \u201cboilerplate declarations\u201d that \u201ccall[ed] into question their evidentiary value.\u201d  Defendant also provided declarations from thirty store managers to counter Plaintiffs\u2019 claims to demonstrate that their claims \u201care not commonly shared by the Company\u2019s Store Managers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The District Court\u2019s Ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 3-page opinion, Judge Rodriguez denied Plaintiffs\u2019 pre-discovery motion for conditional certification and granted Defendant\u2019s motion for expedited discovery.  The Court was brief in its analysis, citing \u201cthe arguments, record, and applicable authority, including the text\u201d of the FLSA.  Op. at 1.

The Court primarily relied on the growing case law revisiting the so-called \u201ctwo-step process\u201d for certification of FLSA collective actions.  Prior to 2021, in what is commonly referred to as the Lusardi <\/em>approach, courts almost universally applied a two-step process to certification of FLSA collective actions, first requiring a plaintiff to make a modest factual showing that plaintiff was similarly situated to others, followed by a second stage with a more thorough examination of evidence with the benefit of discovery.  See Lusardi v. Xerox Corp.<\/em>, 118 F.R.D. 351 (D.N.J. 1987).  In 2021, the Fifth Circuit in Swales, et al. v. KLLM Transport Services, LLC<\/em>, 985 F.3d 430, 436 (5th Cir. 2021), rejected the two-step approach for evaluating motions for certification of collective actions, holding that district courts should \u201crigorously scrutinize the realm of \u2018similarly-situated\u2019 workers \u2026 at the outset of the case.\u201d  In 2023, the Sixth Circuit in Clark v. A&L Homecare & Training Center, LLC<\/em>, 68 F.4th 1003 (6th Cir. 2023), likewise rejected the two-step approach, though introduced a new standard requiring plaintiffs to demonstrate a \u201cstrong likelihood\u201d that other employees are \u201csimilarly-situated\u201d to the plaintiff.

Though the Fourth Circuit has yet to weigh in on this issue, Judge Rodriguez cited the Fifth Circuit\u2019s approach in Swales<\/em>, the Sixth Circuit in Clark<\/em>, and two district court decisions within the Fourth Circuit rejecting bifurcated certification under the FLSA. Op. at 2. See Hubbard v. Southwood Realty Co.<\/em>, No. 3:24-CV-00481, 2026 WL 823169 (W.D.N.C. Mar. 25, 2026); Mathews v. USA Today Sports Media Grp., LLC<\/em>, 1:22-CV-1407, 2023 WL 3676795 (E.D. Va. Apr. 14, 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implications for Companies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When addressing FLSA collective action claims, corporate counsel should be cautioned against accepting Lusardi<\/em>\u2019s bifurcated approach without pushback and cite to Swales <\/em>and Clark <\/em>to slow down a plaintiff\u2019s race to conditional certification. After Hubbard<\/em>, the Harris <\/em>decision is now the second district court opinion within the Fourth Circuit in 2026 to reject Lusardi <\/em>and adopt a single, streamlined discovery approach for FLSA certification.  While most circuits still use the Lusardi <\/em>approach, the circuit split created by the Swales<\/em> (5th Circuit), Clark <\/em>(6th Circuit), and Richards, et al. v. Eli Lilly & Co.<\/em>, 149 F.4th 901 (7th Cir. 2025), rejecting Lusardi <\/em>shows that momentum is moving away from bifurcated discovery.

In the Fourth Circuit in particular, companies can add Harris<\/em>, in addition to Hubbard <\/em>and Mathews<\/em>,to their toolkit to strengthen their arguments against the two-step Lusardi <\/em>approach.  As with any circuit split, this latest trend against bifurcated discovery reinforces how critical it is for companies to understand the approach in the district where they are being sued, but the recent trend away from Lusardi<\/em> should give companies the impetus in any jurisdiction for arguing against bifurcated discovery and rushing to conditional certification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Mike Rosenblatt, and Anna Sheridan Duane Morris Takeaways: On September 3, 2026, in Harris, et al. v. Shoe Show, Inc., No. 3:25-CV-00398 (W.D.N.C. Sept. 3, 2026), Judge Susan C. Rodriguez denied Plaintiffs\u2019 pre-discovery motion for conditional certification of an FLSA collective action and granted Defendant\u2019s emergency motion for expedited, single … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “One Step At A Time: Another District Court Rejects The Lusardi Bifurcated Discovery And Conditional Certification Approach”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[7,177,133],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wage-hour-litigation"],"authors":[{"term_id":7,"user_id":575,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gmaatman","display_name":"Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/maatmangerald-100x100.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Maatman Jr.","first_name":"Gerald L.","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/geraldmaatman.html","description":"Read Gerald's bio.<\/a>"},{"term_id":177,"user_id":776,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mrosenblatt","display_name":"Michael Rosenblatt","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fce60523394ef4b156ce633cf85acc37b6ec519eb2ff553a67561daeabb6ea3f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","author_category":"","last_name":"Rosenblatt","first_name":"Michael","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/michaelrosenblatt.html","description":"Read Michael's bio.<\/a>"},{"term_id":133,"user_id":711,"is_guest":0,"slug":"asheridan","display_name":"Anna Sheridan","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2025\/04\/sheridananna-100x100.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Sheridan","first_name":"Anna","job_title":"","user_url":"","description":"Read Anna's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3209,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions\/3209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}