A federal judge in New Jersey has imposed a $10,000 sanction on a lawyer whose excuse for missing a court filing deadline was refuted by vacation photos on her Instagram account.
Lina Franco, a labor and employment lawyer in a New York-based solo practice, was local counsel to a group of restaurant workers in a wage-and-hour case, Ha v. Baumgart Cafe, when she failed to meet a Nov. 23, 2016, deadline to file a motion for conditional certification of a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. On Dec. 9, 16 days after the motion was due, Franco filed the motion along with a request for an extension of time.
