It appears that January is a good month for convincing federal judges to conditional certify FLSA cases alleging that the boss misclassified his employees as independent contractors. The other day, I came across the following cases, all decided this January. First, in Williams v. XE Services, LLC, 2011 U.S. Dist LEXIS 669 (E.D.N.C. Jan. 4, 2011), the district court conditionally certified a case alleging that a government contractor that provides training to military and law enforcement personnel misclassified its trainers as independent contractors and thereby deprived them of overtime pay. Next, in Edwards v. Multiband Corporation, 2011 U.S. Dist LEXIS 3460 (D. Minn. Jan. 13, 2011), the court conditionally certified a case in which technicians who install DirectTV equipment allege that they are misclassified as independent contractors. Finally, in Coats v. Nashville Limo Bus, LLC, 2011 U.S. Dist LEXIS 8104 (M.D. Tenn. Jan. 27, 2011), the court conditionally certified a case alleging that certain drivers were misclassified as independent contractors. All of these decisions, reaffirm the notion that conditional certification must be liberally granted so that workers will not be deprived of their right to receive notice of FLSA litigation.