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…
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…
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…
If your boss gives you a 1099 tax form each year, does that mean you are an independent contractor? What if you signed an independent contractor agreement? What if you submit invoices to your boss to be paid? The answer may surprise you.
“At-Will”. California is an “at-will” employment state. What does this mean? In most cases, it means that your boss can fire you at any time for almost any reason or no reason at all. She can fire you because she
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…
A Sacramento hospital has the dubious distinction of being hit with what may be the largest sexual harassment verdict in history. On August 7, 2008, Mercy General Hospital terminated Ani Chopourian, a 45-year-old former cardiac surgery physician assistant who was educated at UCLA and Yale, allegedly for failing to show up for an on-call shift…
Sometimes I go for days without opening a newspaper. It gets downright depressing reading about all the school shootings, political gridlock and homicides. But every now and then, I come across something that actually reaffirms my faith in humanity. Take a look at “26 Moments That Restored Our Faith In Humanity This Year” and be…
Have you ever been called to testify as a witness at a deposition (a “deposition” is a fancy way of saying a lawyer-conducted witness interview conducted under oath that is recorded by a court reporter) or at a trial? If so, then you have the right to recover “ordinary witness fees”. According to California Government…
Have you ever sat down and read the “fine print”? That long, boring document with tiny print that falls out of the box of whatever you just bought? Me neither. But maybe we all should from now on. In AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion et ux., AT&T had charged consumers $30.22 for phones that they…
