Adaptation note: This story is adapted from a matter handled by Lingtu Law. Party identities, case details and the outcome have been changed, and it does not reflect the actual result of the original case.

Ms. Y runs a small kitchen and bath contracting company in Northern California. A former employee sued the company for unpaid wages. The case had been going for months when Ms. Y changed lawyers mid-case and brought it to Lingtu.

• Taking over mid-case left little time. The company's response deadline was close, and the file was still with prior counsel.
• The original complaint listed several causes of action: overtime, minimum wage, meal and rest breaks and waiting-time wages, plus civil penalties, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees under Labor Code section 1174 and CCP section 1021.5. For a small company, those add-on claims alone carried real risk.
• The plaintiff claimed to have worked there more than two years, while payroll records matched less than one. The company had no onboarding paperwork, so making that gap stand up in court would take evidence.

• In the first week we sent prior counsel a substitution notice and requested the file, and confirmed an extension to respond with plaintiff's counsel. When the plaintiff later agreed to amend the complaint, we didn't rush to answer or file a demurrer. We waited for the amended version and obtained plaintiff's counsel's written commitment not to seek a default while it was being revised.
• Two rounds of meet and confer on the pleadings, no motions. The plaintiff dropped the civil penalties, injunctive relief, the section 1174 claim and the section 1021.5 fee request on their own, and merged duplicate claims. The client never paid for a motion at this stage.
• Once the amended complaint arrived, we filed the answer weeks ahead of the deadline. The day before, more than a hundred special interrogatories, requests for admission and document requests had already been served on the plaintiff, aimed squarely at how long the employment actually lasted.

Date	Milestone
Spring 2025	A former employee sued the company for unpaid wages
Summer 2025	Ms. Y switched to Lingtu; meet and confer with plaintiff's counsel
Fall 2025	The plaintiff filed an amended complaint dropping several claims; we served discovery and answered early
Early 2026	Discovery confirmed less than a year of actual employment; the plaintiff's claims fell apart and the parties settled, with the company paying only a token amount

When this small company was sued, penalties, an injunction and fee claims were all hanging over it. We cut the complaint down through negotiation, then used discovery to take apart the "two-plus years" claim. The company resolved the case for almost nothing, and Ms. Y never had to go to trial.

Discovery confirmed the employment lasted less than a year, and the parties settled with the company paying only a token amount.