If you are a current or former non-exempt, hourly-paid employee of the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (formerly Department of Public Safety) who worked as security personnel in a correctional institution (“CO”) between October 28, 2016 and the present, your rights may be affected.
“CO” as used in this Notice includes Correctional Officers and Correctional Sergeants.
This Litigation is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina Western Division
Case No. 5:19-CV-478-D
This lawsuit is about whether the Department is required to pay COs for all the time they spend inside a prison facility. Plaintiffs allege that the Department must do so, and has not paid COs for all the time they spend inside the prison. The Department contends that it has no obligation to pay COs for all the time they spend inside a prison facility, including time spent outside the facility but waiting to enter the facility, and that the Department has paid COs for the time they spent performing their duties. The Department also denies that class certification is appropriate.
The Class certified by the Court consists of the following individuals:
All current and former non-exempt, hourly-paid employees of DAC who worked as security personnel in a correctional institution in the State of North Carolina at any time between October 28, 2016 and the date of judgment.
You are a class member if: you are or were a non-exempt, hourly-paid employee of DAC (formerly DPS) who worked as a security personnel in a correctional institution in the State of North Carolina between October 28, 2016 and the present. This generally includes Correctional Officers and Correctional Sergeants. Class members are identifiable based on the Department’s records.
If you are still not sure if you are included in the Class, you can contact Class Counsel listed on the “Contact Information” tab.
1. DO NOTHING Stay in this lawsuit. Await the outcome. Give up certain rights.
By doing nothing, you automatically remain a class member in the lawsuit and keep the possibility of getting money or benefits that may come from a trial or settlement. You will give up any rights to separately sue the Department about the matters involved in this lawsuit and will be bound by the result of the lawsuit, whether favorable or unfavorable.
2. ASK TO BE EXCLUDED Get out of this lawsuit. Receive no benefits from it. Keep rights to sue.
If you ask to be excluded and money benefits are awarded later, you will not share in those benefits, but you will keep any right to separately sue the Department about the same matters in this lawsuit and will not be bound by the result of this lawsuit, whether favorable or unfavorable.
Each of these options is described in more detail in the Notice. .
You must request to be excluded by June 25, 2024, or you will be bound by the result of the lawsuit, whether favorable or unfavorable.
Do not contact the Court directly about this lawsuit or this Notice.
To exclude yourself from the Class, you must email, mail or otherwise deliver a letter (or request for exclusion) stating that you want to be excluded from Hodge, et al. v. North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, Case No. 5:19-cv-478.Your request for exclusion must include your name and address, and your signature (if your request for exclusion is sent by email, include your name in the email). You must email your request to ncdaclawsuit@rg2claims.com or mail your exclusion request to the Notice Administrator at: Hodge v. NC Department of Adult Correction c/o Notice Administrator PO Box 59479 Philadelphia, PA 19102-9479, by mail, postmarked no later than June 25, 2024. You may also get an Exclusion Request form here.