Contact
Jason D. Stitt
Partner
Wichita
1605 North Waterfront Parkway
Suite 150
Wichita, Kansas 67206
Phone: 316.609.7909
Fax: 316.462.5746
Email: [email protected]
Mr. Stitt is a partner in the Firm’s Wichita, Kansas office. He has extensive experience representing companies in a variety of areas of litigation, including employment, wage and hour class and collective actions, commercial disputes, and trademark infringement. Mr. Stitt’s practice also includes preventing lawsuits by assisting employers in drafting and revising their handbooks and advising employers regarding day-to-day employment and wage and hour issues as they arise.
Mr. Stitt’s goal in representing clients in litigation is to obtain the best possible result while spending as little of his clients’ money as possible. He achieves this goal by evaluating a number of things in the earliest stages of litigation, including weaknesses in the client’s case, anticipated fees and costs for all alternatives, and the opposition’s objectives. Mr. Stitt’s early evaluation efforts prevent clients from expending substantial fees on matters that either should not be litigated because of extraordinarily high risk or because of the opposition’s relatively modest objectives.
Mr. Stitt’s litigation accomplishments include the following, among many others:
- Obtained decertification of a company-wide collective action, initially certified pursuant to Section 216(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, in a federal lawsuit in which contractors that delivered cargo in their personal vehicles contended they were misclassified and should have received overtime compensation.
- Defeated initial, conditional certification of a company-wide collective action under Section 216(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act in a federal lawsuit in which employees at the client’s nursing home facilities contended they were not properly compensated for work during unpaid lunch breaks and work before and after scheduled shift times.
- Defeated class certification in federal court lawsuit in which the plaintiff contended that revisions to a public school district’s retirement benefits deprived her of a contractual right to substantial benefits upon early retirement.
- Obtained judgment in excess of $91,000,000 on behalf of client, who manufactures automobile engine additives, against former foreign distributor who affixed client’s trademarks on counterfeit products sold in China and other countries in Southeast Asia.
- Won summary judgment, and affirmance by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in disability discrimination case in which the plaintiff, whose eyesight did not allow him to pass DOT certification standards yet who claimed he never drove commercial vehicles, was required to drive commercial vehicles as an essential function of his position.
- Won summary judgment in commercial litigation case in which the plaintiff sought over $2 million in lost profit damages following client’s allegedly wrongful repossession of equipment, yet failed to disclose the claim on his schedules in his pending bankruptcy. The Court found that the plaintiff was judicially estopped from pursuing a claim not disclosed to the bankruptcy court.
- After a lower court dismissed clients’ claims, obtained reversal from Kansas Court of Appeals which both overturned the dismissal and entered judgment in clients’ favor. The clients, who were called upon to satisfy a commercial loan they had guaranteed, obtained indemnity from the principal debtor and contribution from co-guarantors.
- Obtained involuntary dismissal, affirmed on appeal, in matter in which member of recreational sailing club contended he was expelled in retaliation for reporting handicap accessibility issues. The plaintiff, who described offers exchanged at mediation in an email to fellow club members, violated a court rule requiring confidentiality in mediation proceedings.
- Obtained over thirty dispositive rulings in clients’ favor on summary judgment, motions to dismiss, and appeal, in cases alleging employment discrimination, harassment, FMLA interference, and wage and hour violations.
- Obtained nearly one hundred “no probable cause” findings in proceedings before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or counterpart state agencies.
- Defeated preliminary injunctive relief, and successfully negotiated resolutions of, a number of disputes arising out of non-compete agreements, representing both the plaintiff (enforcement) and defendant (defense).