As litigation combining COVID-19 prevention procedures with wage claims continues to mount, new polling shows most workers would prefer to receive help from elected officials rather than trial lawyers.
A 10-year-old Proposition 65 lawsuit has been dismissed after a judge found the defendant coffee companies had met the burden of proof by showing that acrylamide, which is found in coffee after roasting and brewing, doesn’t increase cancer risks.
The recent dismissal of COVID-19 claims against a cruise line could make similar cases alleging emotional distress unlikely to prevail, and sends a message the courts should be used for those who have been justly harmed, a civil justice advocate said.
A proposed class action lawsuit alleging wage and hour violations against a medical staffing company also includes claims for failure to protect against the coronavirus.
A new bill proposes doubling the amount of time discharged employees have to bring complaints under jurisdiction of the state’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), and includes a clause for awarding attorney’s fees.
SACRAMENTO --- Under an executive order signed May 6 by Gov. Gavin Newsom, employees who work outside the home are entitled to workers' compensation benefits if they contract COVID-19.
While the state’s lemon law – the Song Beverly Consumer Protection Act – has served as a safeguard for car buyers, some attorneys have also used it to extract large fee payments from car manufacturers.
SACRAMENTO – An activist with the nonprofit Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse said a new bill in the California Senate designed to end gender discrimination in product pricing would instead kill jobs and result in frivolous lawsuits.
SACRAMENTO – The legal climate within the state of California and throughout the nation has become increasingly temperamental, driven by new waves of bills that have led to copious amounts of litigation. With these lawsuits becoming commonplace, experts have grown concerned with the way a number of these cases – specifically high-profile MDL cases – are being advertised to the public and the impact those advertisements may have on jury pools and verdicts.
SACRAMENTO – The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the state agency responsible for implementing Proposition 65 and compiling the list of substances that are known to cause cancer or reproductive harm, is considering the placement of acetaminophen on its list of cancer-causing substances.
SACRAMENTO – Stanislaus County Supervisor Kristin Olsen recently wrote an op-ed published in The Modesto Bee issuing a warning that businesses within her county are spending millions to settle Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) lawsuits, taking away money that would be well-spent elsewhere within the community and making it more difficult to be a business owner in the state.
SACRAMENTO – The U.S. House of Representatives last month passed the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, which sets out to do away with arbitration contracts for employment, consumer, anti-trust or civil rights disputes. With a bill to ban forced arbitration in employment settings also sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk, experts fear for the future of the state as trial lawyers are seemingly gaining the upper hand.
SACRAMENTO – Assembly Bill 51 was just one of many labor and litigation bills that was pushed through this legislative session but some experts believe it was the most significant and will harm future business across the state.
SACRAMENTO – The state of California can add to its already long list of growing economic problems as the Golden State was recently ranked 48th in the nation in a lawsuit climate survey, dropping two spots from a year ago.
SACRAMENTO – Businesses are making last-ditch efforts to get lawmakers to amend the groundbreaking California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) due to concerns of what impact the bill may have across the state when it goes into effect Jan. 1.
SACRAMENTO – A recent CNBC state-to-state business report exposed the difficulties of doing business in the state of California. The annual poll ranks each state across the country in a number of major categories, including workforce, economy and structure and the Golden State finished among the worst.
SACRAMENTO – Regional Director Maryann Marino of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse believes that one of the biggest legal threats facing small business owners is unwarranted Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits, and the California Small Business Association agrees.
SACRAMENTO – For two decades, the litigation funding industry allowed third-party companies to finance civil litigation court cases, like class-action lawsuits, in exchange for a varied percentage of funds obtained from the lawsuit. While it was originally intended to assist in smaller law firms handling larger cases, it has now been used to place a priority of money over a client’s well-being in a case.
SACRAMENTO – A round of fixes to a hastily drafted consumer protection bill that became law last year can’t come soon enough, according to Ken Barnes, the executive director of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CCALA).
The more than $90 million San Francisco has paid out in city employee lawsuits over about a dozen years points up why arbitration agreements are so important, a tort reform advocate said during a recent interview.
