Final Paychecks – When Are They Due? (2023)

A question I hear a lot is: “I just left my job, when is my employer supposed to pay me my last paycheck?” The answer is: it depends. If you were fired or laid off If the employer ended your employment — fired you, laid you off, eliminated your position, etc. — they must have…

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“Sharp” Defense Lawyers Smacked Down by Appeals Court

Ever wonder what would happen if a lawyer tried to “pull a fast one” on a trial court judge? Wonder no more. In Francisco Diaz v Prof. Community Mgt., Inc., a case decided in October 2017 by the Fourth Appellate District Court of Appeals, an appeals court considered the case of two unscrupulous lawyers who…

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Can Employers Require Employees to Remain on Premises? (2023)

A reader of this blog recently asked an intriguing question: “Your boss may require you to remain on work premises during your rest break.: Is this still true after the recent California Supreme Court decision? I believe the reader was referring to Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc., 2 Cal. 5th 257 (2016). That decision…

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California Supremes Limit Arbitration Waivers

The key excerpt from this latest ruling from the California Supreme Court, McGill v Citybank, says it all: In previous decisions, this court has said that the statutory remedies available for a violation of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA; Civ. Code, § 1750 et seq.), the unfair competition law (UCL; Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200…

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What Happens to Huge Verdicts AFTER the Headlines

Multi-million dollar verdicts routinely headline the news. But what few seem to know is what happens to those verdicts long after the jury and the public have moved on. More often than not, those verdicts get cut down to size or get lost in a perfect storm of appeals. In Stevens v. Vons Companies, a…

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