Huntington Beach Law Blog

The Camp Fire burned through the Sierra Nevada hills with unprecedented fury for two weeks in late 2018. The cause of the state’s deadliest fire to date was determined to be faulty electrical equipment owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The embattled and bankrupt utility faces civil suits regarding damages caused by this fire. Still, it now pleads guilty of 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for deaths caused by the fire and one felony count of unlawfully causing the fire. The second count addresses severe injuries to a firefighter and others as well as the destruction of multiple structures.

The settlements

Pregnancy is a time of celebration and hope for many expectant mothers (and their partners). However, pregnancy is also stressful for many people, whether couples face financial uncertainty or women experience health problems during the course of their pregnancy. Unfortunately, some people experience discrimination during this important time in their lives.

Owners and managers need to remember that this is both bad business and illegal to discriminate against pregnant women. Still, it continues to surface in workplaces all over the U.S.

The school board for the Los Angeles Unified school district has four of its seats up for grabs in a pivotal election in 2020. The other three seats are uncontested, but veteran watchers believe that two of the four races are extremely competitive. The state’s largest school district with 600,000 students hosts a primary on March 3, where 50% vote can win the seat outright. If no candidate breaks that threshold, there would be a runoff in November. The new board will convene in December

Charter school issue fuels campaign

California is often an outlier in favor of the employee when it comes to employment law and employee rights. One example is the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), a law from 2004 that enables a plaintiff of a PAGA-only claim to sue their employer on the state’s behalf to get unpaid wages. The unions backed the idea because it was a way to hold employers more accountable to labor codes. As recently as last year, this meant that employees netted $88 million from California businesses, including $10.7 million to 99,000 current and former Walmart cashiers.

PAGA enabled aggrieved employees to bring a representative action on behalf of all company employees and then keep 25% for themselves as well as cover the cost of attorney’s fees. The rest of the settlement goes to the state. The notable exception is that all “unpaid” wages would go directly to the employees. Moreover, previous PAGA claims could not be waived, nor could the employees be compelled to arbitrate their claims.