Before trial, the husband-and-wife team of Gregory and Jennifer Lutz of Lutz & Lutz turned down an offer to settle Bill Hawkins's age discrimination case against Kmart for $150,000. But even the Lutzes were surprised by the whopping verdict a California state court jury in Riverside returned for Hawkins this week: compensatory damages of $916,000, and punitives of $25 million--more than double what they asked for.

Remember the revolution the Great Recession was supposed to wreak in the relationship between corporations and the law firms that represent them? It's becoming increasingly clear that we skipped right over revolution and went straight to restoration.

Ever since the Supreme Court ruled two years ago that companies can enforce class action waivers in consumer contracts, defendants have been trying to use the decision as a class action killer in the employment context as well. Those efforts haven't been particularly successful so far, but there are signs that the tide may be turning.

Brooklyn federal district court judge Steven Gold certified a wage-and-hour class action for employees of SimplexGrinnell, a subsidiary of Tyco International. The employees allege that the fire alarm maker violated New York law by failing to pay them the prevailing wage for electrical work performed on public buildings in New York.