Stories by Jonathan Bilyk on Northern California Record

The First District Court of Appeals ruled the California constitution invests voters with the same powers to govern workers' comp as the state legislature, meaning voters can overrule lawmakers and classify app-based drivers for Uber, Doordash and similar companies as independent contractors

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the threat of criminal and civil penalties against employers served to deter employers from forming arbitration agreements with workers, violating federal law

Exclusive Napa restaurant - cite of infamous Covid-era dinner party that helped spark recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom - is asking courts to order Hartford Insurance to reimburse it for losses suffered under Newsom's Covid shutdown orders

The class action lawsuit asserts federal law requires Alaska Airlines to pay reservist pilots for their time on short-term military service, just as it pays pilots om sick leave, jury duty or bereavement

The state high court said Redondo Beach's mayor and others who beat a lawsuit over claims they didn't properly disclose their identities when pushing a referendum over a waterfront development must do more to get $897K attorney fees from the people who sued them

A federal judge in Sacramento said the law, AB2098, was unconstitutionally vague, because it allows the Medical Board to rely on an "ill-defined ... scientific consensus" to determine if doctors can be disciplined or even barred from practicing medicine in California

AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile had sought millions of dollars in refunds from Santa Clara County, arguing they had been overtaxed under the California state constitution

The judge said the class action lawsuit isn't preempted by federal law or FDA regulations. Olly claimed the lawsuit seeks to set an illegal upper limit on how much vitamins and minerals can be included in supplements

Facebook has agreed to pay $550 million to settle one of the first and largest class actions launched under an Illinois biometrics privacy law.

In ruling that three paint manufacturers have known since the early 20th Century of the danger the use of lead paint inside homes posed to children, a California appeals court has upheld the bulk of a judge’s reasoning in ordering the paint companies to pay more than $1 billion for their alleged contributions to a “public nuisance” caused by the continued presence of lead paint in old homes.

Lawyers for three current and former paint manufacturers on the hook for a $1.15 billion judgment over the presence of lead paint in more than 3 million California homes have asked a California appeals court to overturn that judgment, saying the judge overreached and trespassed on legal turf more properly reserved for lawmakers, and to rule otherwise would open a virtual Pandora’s box of further judicial abuses and other unforeseen harms on homeowners, businesses and taxpayers, alike.

SAN JOSE – Nearly three years ago, a California judge ordered a group of three paint makers to pay $1.15 billion to 10 California cities and counties to remediate what the judge decided was the “public nuisance” of lead paint in homes.