Misclassification
Labeling employees as exempt or independent contractors to avoid wage-and-hour protections.
In plain terms
Misclassification fights decide whether you were really an employee entitled to overtime, breaks, and reimbursement—or lawfully treated as exempt or as an independent contractor. California uses demanding tests; labels on a contract do not control reality. For overtime exemptions, courts compare your actual job duties and salary to the legal standards, not what HR wrote on an offer letter.