NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RECORD

Senate-approved legislation that would have torpedoed privacy laws by stripping a court’s discretion in sealing information produced during discovery ran into a powerful business coalition in the State Assembly.

SACRAMENTO - The California Legislature is on the verge of a change in civil litigation procedure that will give companies yet another reason to flee the state for more hospitable business climes.

A Roman Catholic priest who oversees churches in four California counties will have his day in court on December 2 armed with eight claims of how Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s shutdown orders have violated his constitutional rights.

California employers await the scheduling by the state Supreme Court for oral arguments in Troester v. Starbucks, a case that challenges the authority of a “de minimis” rule that has been repeatedly applied in other disputes over wages.

SACRAMENTO – A proposal that would require state agencies to enforce environmental standards adopted under the Obama Administration, if those standards are rolled back under Trump, is headed for a floor vote in the Assembly by late September.

SACRAMENTO - A California Assembly committee put off a scheduled late April vote on legislation that would pull the curtain back on awards from bankruptcy trusts established for victims of asbestos exposure.

SACRAMENTO - Legislation that would help prevent doubling up on awards by trial lawyers and their clients, allegedly injured through exposure to asbestos, is scheduled for a vote in the Judiciary Committee of the California Assembly on April 25.

SACRAMENTO - Legal actions taken by ten governments on the West Coast against the chemical giant Monsanto could eventually ensnare thousands of other manufacturers (even of discontinued products) in the same types of these highly speculative, virtually defenseless actions, legal experts warn.