LOS ANGELES — The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the California Department of Industrial Relations ruled on Monday in favor of Nicole Doshi in her contract dispute with defunct talent agency Motley Models and its former owner Dave Rock.
Special Hearing Officer Casey Raymond ordered all forms of contract utilized by Motley and Rock to represent Doshi, including an exclusive contract, to be void and terminated, and held the agency and its owner jointly liable to reimburse Doshi for $25,875 in commissions and $10,850 in booking fees with interest, and to pay $16,208 in attorney’s fees and $261.24 in costs.
Doshi’s attorney, Allan Gelbard, said he and his client are “obviously very pleased with the decision.”
“It’s very performer-protective, which the Talent Agency Act clearly requires,” Gelbard added. “The Labor Commission has — for the third time in a row — held that agencies charging booking fees are violating the Talent Agency Act and breaching their fiduciary duties to their performer clients. Booking fees create a conflict of interest between agents and their clients that the Labor Commission will simply not tolerate.”
Gelbard also celebrated the joint-liability decision, warning agency owners that they can be found personally liable for agency violations.
Doshi, he concluded, “showed great courage to stand up to her agent — and his lawyer — and to demand that she be treated lawfully. I’m proud to have had the opportunity to represent her in this case.”
Motley and Rock’s attorney, Richard Freeman, told XBIZ, “We think this decision is very erroneous in a number of respects and we intend to file for a trial de novo in the Los Angeles Superior Court.”
The issue of booking fees, Freeman added, “has been batted about for a number of years and the Labor Commission Office itself has taken very inconsistent positions, initially setting forth the conditions under which booking fees could be collected and a later time reversing its position with a couple of decisions that invalidated booking fees. The issue of booking fees has never been considered by a California court with an appointed judge and there are cases now pending that will allow for a judicial resolution of that issue which we think will be supportive of the talent agents.”