This column reports on several significant representative decisions handed down recently in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto held, in a putative class action, that claims by registered nurses against a staffing agency under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act were adequately pleaded. Judge Matsumoto granted compassionate release to a defendant serving a below-guidelines custodial sentence of one month. And Judge Pamela K. Chen, citing the “taxicab exemption,” rejected a chauffeur’s claims against a limousine service under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Trafficking Victims Protection Act

In Magtoles v. United Staffing Registry, 21 CV 1850 (EDNY, Dec. 30, 2021), Judge Matsumoto declined to dismiss the claims of three nurses in a putative class action for violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).