California - General

On September 23, 2018, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB-1121 amending certain provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) which was enacted in June of this year.

In Fritsch v. Swift Transp. Co. of Ariz., LLC, No. 18-55746 (Aug. 18, 2018), the Ninth Circuit clarified, in a unanimous published decision, that, where a party may recover its attorney’s fees by statute or contract, the Court must include future fees as well as those already incurred in assessing w

An amendment to Section 1122 of the California Evidence Code on mediation confidentiality requires attorneys representing clients in connection with mediation to provide written disclosures to their clients about mediation confidentiality beginning January 1, 2019.

September 1, 2018 marked the last day for the California legislature to pass bills and forward them to Governor Jerry Brown (D) for his consideration. Governor Brown has until September 30 to sign, veto, or otherwise decline to act upon these bills. The bills that become law will take effect on Janu

Bruce Sarchet and Corinn Jackson of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute discuss recently-adopted amendments to the California salary history ban. Although the ban took effect this past January, the original statute left open numerous important questions. Bruce and Corinn review the new definitions

On August 13, 2018, the California Fourth District of Appeal held in Monster Energy Company v. Schechter that an attorney who signed his client’s settlement agreement under the phrase “approved as to form and content” was entitled to the granting of an anti-SLAPP motion in a case against him for bre

In its continuing, apparent quest to undermine federal law, the California legislature is moving to make it unlawful for employers to require applicants or employees to agree to resolve employment-related disputes by way of arbitration. AB 3080 would add provisions to the California Fair Employment

On July 1, 2018, the newly implemented Hotel Housekeeping Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention Program (MIPP) regulation took effect.1 This program requires all California hotel/motel employers to institute and maintain written policies and training practices regarding housekeeping-related workplace ha

On January 1, 2018, California’s salary history ban (A.B. 168) took effect. Under A.B. 168, California employers are prohibited from “seek[ing] salary history information” from an applicant.1 The statute also prohibits employers from relying on an applicant’s prior salary history “as a factor in det

Today, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Troester v. Starbucks, refusing to hold that the well-established de minimis doctrine applies under California law. The de minimis doctrine is a principle of law that has long been endorsed and applied by both federal and California state cou

Introduction: Last February, we provided an overview of California's Immigrant Worker Protection Act, AB 450. The law, which took effect on January 1, 2018, was a response to anticipated increases in federal immigration enforcement efforts under the Trump administration and was aimed at providing wo

On July 4, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice obtained a partial victory in its challenge of California’s Immigrant Worker Protection Act ("Assembly Bill 450" or "AB 450") and other sanctuary laws when a California federal court held that certain provisions of AB 450 violated the Supremacy Clause

A key issue for any business facing class action litigation in response to a data breach is whether the plaintiffs, particularly consumers, will have standing to sue. Standing to sue in a data breach class action suit, largely turns on whether plaintiffs establish that they have suffered an “injury-

By Philip L. Gordon and Andrew Gray on July 9, 2018 With the May 25, 2018 effective date of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) barely in the rear-view mirror, California’s Governor Jerry Brown, on June 28, 2018, signed into law the “California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

Executive Summary: California has become the first state to introduce privacy protection for individuals’ personal data comparable to that provided under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA” or “the Act”), which takes eff

On July 4, 2018, Federal District Judge John A. Mendez granted a preliminarily injunction enjoining the State of California, Governor Brown, and Attorney General Becerra from enforcing parts of AB 450, the controversial new law that limited employer conduct when dealing with federal immigration enfo

The California Fair Employment and Housing Council published new regulations on May 17th relating to national origin discrimination. The regulations will take effect in just a few weeks, on July 1, 2018, and will be codified in the California Code of Regulations sections 11027 and 11028.

In its May 24, 2018 opinion in the matter of Diaz v. Grill Concepts Services, Inc. (Case no. B280846, 2nd Dist.), the California Court of Appeal shed further light on the standard to impose so-called “waiting time penalties” on employers who neglect to pay wages due upon discharge or resignation. Di

The California Supreme Court, in Dynamex Operations v. Superior Court, held that for purposes of claims under the California Wage Orders “engage, suffer or permit to work” determines employee status, thus requiring a defendant who disputes that a worker is an employee (rather than an independent con

Diverging from decades-old precedent, the California Supreme Court has broadened the definition of “employee” in the context of the State’s Industrial Work Commission (IWC) wage orders when undertaking the employee-versus-independent contractor analysis. Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Cou