Galeotti v. International Union of Operating Eng’rs Local No. 3, 2020 WL 2188995 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) John Galeotti, a former business agent for the union, alleged he was wrongfully terminated for refusing to contribute money...more
Caldera v. California Dep’t of Corrs. & Rehab., 2020 WL 2109751 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) -
Augustine Caldera is a correctional officer at a state prison who stutters when he speaks. Caldera alleged that the prison’s...more
Luna v. Hansen & Adkins Auto Transport, Inc., 2020 WL 1969409 (9th Cir. 2020) -
Leonard Luna filed this putative class action, alleging a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) because his former employer had...more
Anthony v. TRAX Int’l Corp., 955 F.3d 1123 (9th Cir. 2020) -
After Sunny Anthony filed suit, alleging she was terminated because of her disability, the employer (TRAX) learned that contrary to her representation on her...more
Reynaud v. Technicolor Creative Servs. USA, Inc., 46 Cal. App. 5th 1007 (2020) -
Plaintiffs Michael and Fiona Reynaud (both British citizens) sued Michael’s former employer, Technicolor, for negligence based upon its...more
In Pinter-Brown v. Regents of the University of California, the California Court of Appeal’s Second Appellate District recently reversed a blockbuster $13 million judgment that was entered against UCLA in favor of one of its...more
5/14/2020
/ Arbitration ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Jury Awards ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Punitive Damages ,
Title VII
Employers who have laid off workers due to COVID-19 may soon be required to rehire the laid off workers before they can hire any new employees.
The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a measure giving specified...more
This morning, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order that allows a California employer that is conducting layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic to use the newly-created “unforeseen business circumstances”...more
St. Myers v. Dignity Health, 44 Cal. App. 5th 301 (2019) -
Carla St. Myers worked as a nurse practitioner at a rural clinic that was part of a medical center owned and operated by Dignity Health. During her three years of...more
Time Spent By Employees In Exit Searches Is Compensable -
Frlekin v. Apple Inc., 2020 WL 727813 (Cal. S. Ct. 2020) -
In this opinion, the California Supreme Court answered a question certified to it by the United...more
3/17/2020
/ CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Rules of Professional Conduct ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Orders ,
Workers' Compensation Claim
As we reported previously, Assembly Bill 51, which would impose criminal penalties upon employers seeking to have their employees sign arbitration agreements, has been challenged in federal court...more
Glynn v. Superior Court, 42 Cal. App. 5th 47 (2019) -
John Glynn worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative before he commenced a medical leave of absence for a serious eye condition (myopic macular degeneration)....more
Mathews v. Happy Valley Conference Ctr., 2019 WL 6769659 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) -
Jeremiah Mathews worked as a maintenance supervisor and cook for Happy Valley Conference Center, which is a subordinate affiliate of...more
On January 1, 2020, California’s new worker classification law known as Assembly Bill 5 (“AB 5”), goes into effect. AB 5 codifies the three-factor “ABC” test adopted by the California Supreme Court in its 2018 Dynamex...more
12/16/2019
/ ABC Test ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Code ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactive Application ,
State Labor Laws
Last week, we blogged about the avalanche of new labor laws that California employers will face in 2020. Here are two late additions to the list — just in time for Halloween!...more
Following passage of AB-5, the recent string of multi-million dollar employee jury verdicts, and other challenging developments, we concluded that our subscribers need some feel-good news every meow and then (sorry)....more
In an effort to give consumers more control over the data businesses collect from and about them, the California legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2018 (and amended it a few months later). The...more
9/24/2019
/ B2B Organizations ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Exemptions ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
New Amendments ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Laws ,
Rulemaking Process
Employers all over California are once again hearing the siren call of arbitration in the wake of a $15.4 million single-plaintiff verdict that a Los Angeles jury delivered to a former Los Angeles Times sports columnist on...more
We’re delighted to report that we secured two summary judgments in two separate alleged discrimination cases on behalf of our client Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in matters that were pending in the Los Angeles Superior Court....more
In a decision unsurprising to anyone familiar with what California juries have been up to lately, fast-food titan Jack in the Box was ordered to pay $15.4 million (including a staggering $10 million in punitive damages) last...more
6/21/2019
/ Age Discrimination ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Jury Awards ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Negligent Supervision ,
Retaliation ,
Sexual Harassment
Strict Independent Contractor Test Applies Retroactively -
Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising Int'l, 2019 WL 1945001 (9th Cir. 2019) -
Last year, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Ops. W. Inc. v. Superior Court, 4...more
5/17/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
FEHA ,
Former Employee ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactive Application ,
State Labor Laws ,
Title VII ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
Wage and Hour
A new California bill aims to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees based upon their hairstyles. SB 188, also known as the “CROWN Act” (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair),...more
Last year, we questioned whether California’s new restrictions on independent contractors would apply retroactively. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit decided that the landmark ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior...more
For the second time this calendar year, a Los Angeles jury ordered an employer to pay $11 million to an employee who claimed to have been sexually harassed. And, once again, the amount of punitive damages ($8 million) dwarfed...more
Just another day in paradise in Los Angeles… Unless you happen to be an employer. Continuing the recent spate of multi-million dollar verdicts, an LA jury awarded a former police officer $7 million on her sex discrimination...more