{"id":1392,"date":"2016-03-08T12:36:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T17:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2023-07-25T12:01:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T16:01:34","slug":"louis-c-k-s-routine-falls-flat-in-court-comedian-ordered-to-pay-defenses-legal-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2016\/03\/louis-c-k-s-routine-falls-flat-in-court-comedian-ordered-to-pay-defenses-legal-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis C.K.\u2019s Routine Falls Flat In Court \u2013 Comedian Ordered To Pay Defense\u2019s Legal Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"6974319024_d16d34d2b8_z\"Successful comedian Louis C.K.\u2019s time in federal court has finally come to an end.\u00a0\u00a0 Louis C.K. is a member of multiple unions, and from these unions were three union-industry plans requiring Louis to make financial contributions. Last year Louis\u2019 production company, Pig Newton, filed a lawsuit against the directors of the three union-industry plans, seeking a declaratory judgment that Louis was not required to make these contributions, and even if he was, the contributions should have a \u201cceiling\u201d so as to only reflect the actual hours Louis spent acting in various roles. In March 2015, a federal judge ruled for the defendants. The case came down to the issue of the \u201ccontrolling employee\u201d provisions in collective bargaining agreements. The idea behind these provisions is to create safeguards that ensure members that control their work hours do not try to get maximum union benefits while paying minimum union contributions. The District Court judge in the case rejected Pig Newton\u2019s argument that the unions did not have the authority to create the provisions, and plaintiffs did not appeal.<\/p>\n

This week, the case has finally come to a close, with the same judge awarding the defendant\u2019s attorney\u2019s fees and costs – around $200,000. In explaining her reasoning, the judge stated that the issues raised by Pig Newton were not only complex and novel, but also of \u201cmonumental significance\u201d to health and pension plans, and a ruling in Pig Newton\u2019s favor would have voided similar \u201ccontrolling employee\u201d provisions for hundreds of employees in the country.<\/p>\n

Read more about the story here: http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/thr-esq\/hollywood-docket-louis-cks-legal-869097<\/a><\/p>\n


\nJennifer Marr is an Entertainment and Sports Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2018).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Successful comedian Louis C.K.\u2019s time in federal court has finally come to an end.\u00a0\u00a0 Louis C.K. is a member of multiple unions, and from these unions were three union-industry plans requiring Louis to make financial contributions. Last year Louis\u2019 production company, Pig Newton, filed a lawsuit against the directors of the three union-industry plans, seeking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[15,99,198],"ppma_author":[382],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight","tag-entertainment-2","tag-highlight","tag-legal-fees"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2016\/03\/6974319024_d16d34d2b8_z.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZjrR-ms","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":382,"user_id":39,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jsel","display_name":"JSEL","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4abb87a025d5a7951a4b4249facf4d22ea8002b216770229a96689038d0f83bc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}