Last month, in Jane Doe v. Alkiviades David, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned a verdict in a sexual assault and harassment case in the amount of $900 million. This verdict is one of the largest ever for a...more
8/9/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Cause of Action Accrual ,
Compensatory Damages ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Jury Instructions ,
Jury Trial ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Punitive Damages ,
Retaliation ,
Risk Management ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment
A newly enacted, under-the-radar statute in California could undermine efforts by employers to challenge the expert opinion testimony regarding alleged emotional distress offered by employees at trial.
In many if not most...more
1/17/2024
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Burden of Proof ,
California ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Expert Testimony ,
Harassment ,
New Legislation ,
Psychiatrists ,
Retaliation ,
Wrongful Termination
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is already one of the most employee-friendly state civil rights laws in the country. Until now, it was not clear whether employees could sue not only their direct employers...more
California is considering a new law (Assembly Bill 331), also known as the Automated Decision Systems Accountability Act. Modeled after the Biden Administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights (whitehouse.gov), AB 331...more
An astronomical $137 million jury verdict against Tesla has again been reduced, for a second (and potentially final) time. Last Monday, following a five-day trial on damages, a federal court jury awarded Owen Diaz, a former...more
It just wouldn’t be Fall without the passage of a flurry of new laws, shaking up the employment landscape in California. As of the close of the legislative session on August 31, several “job killer” bills (so called by the...more
9/22/2022
/ Bereavement Leave ,
California ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Governor Newsom ,
Labor Relations ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Pay Data ,
Pending Legislation ,
Workplace Safety
In Michelle Roman v. Hertz Local Edition Corp., a United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of California granted summary judgment in favor of Hertz, and against former employee Michelle Roman, whose...more
5/26/2022
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
California ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
FEHA ,
Hertz ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
A federal court judge pared down last year’s jaw-dropping $137 million damages award against Tesla in a racial bias lawsuit. On April 13, 2022, the judge granted Tesla’s motion for a reduction in the amount of damages in part...more
As anyone who has worked in a customer-facing job can tell you, dealing with difficult customers often comes with the territory. However, when customer behavior crosses a line into illegal conduct like sexual harassment, both...more
On Wednesday, in a surprising turn, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed in part a 2020 preliminary injunction issued by a district court and resurrected California Labor Code Section 432.6, the Golden...more
9/17/2021
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Labor Disputes ,
Labor Regulations ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State Labor Laws
On Thursday, a unanimous California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC, providing answers to two important questions about meal periods: (1) whether it is permissible to round meal...more
For years, federal courts in California have been inundated with wage and hour class actions. Because these cases often clogged district court dockets for months (and, sometimes, even years) on end, the Central District of...more
7/28/2020
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Court Schedules ,
Discovery ,
Employment Litigation ,
Excusable Neglect ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Furloughs ,
Local Rules ,
Scheduling Orders ,
Wage and Hour
Though much attention has been paid to state price gouging laws, several states without price gouging laws have nevertheless been active enforcers. Governors in many of these states have issued executive orders empowering...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
In this episode of The Proskauer Brief, partners Tony Oncidi and Kate Gold discuss California’s most recent legislative response to the #MeToo movement. These developments include new restrictions on confidentiality and...more
12/2/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
FEHA ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
State Legislatures ,
Statute of Limitations
As recently highlighted by the New York Times, a new phrase emblematic of the real or perceived “War Between the Generations” has gone viral: “OK, Boomer!” The phrase, popularized on the Internet and, in particular, Twitter...more
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
On Thursday, October 10, 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law several new measures that employers will need to comply with by January 1, 2020 and that will generally make it easier for employees to sue their...more
10/14/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DFEH ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Governor Newsom ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
New Legislation ,
Preemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statute of Limitations
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
What used to be a routine request – asking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for an extension of time when responding to a charge of discrimination or harassment and assuming extra time would be granted –...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
It’s springtime in California! Even as the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, the California legislature is busy, busy, busy passing 100s of new laws because, after all, you can never get too much of a good thing!...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
On July 4th, U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez issued an order enjoining California from enforcing parts of the California Immigration Workers Protection Act (Assembly Bill 450), a new state law that restricted private...more
7/9/2018
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Records ,
Form I-9 ,
Governor Brown ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
New Legislation ,
Notice Requirements ,
State Labor Laws ,
Subpoenas
On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its unanimous ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, making it even harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors (rather than...more