Is the California Legislature a Bill Factory?

In California, during its 2018 Legislative Session, the Legislature and Governor enacted 1,016 new laws, most of which took effect for 2019. That statistic raises the age-old question, “Is the California Legislature just a bill factory?” We leave to another day the answer to that question and whether the answer is good or bad. In […]

Tax Reform in the 2019 California Legislative Session?

With the deadline for introducing new bills for the 2019 Legislative Session having passed, the California Legislature will embark on considering hundreds of tax-related measures until they adjourn in mid-September. There are over 350 tax related bills that were introduced, many without substantive language yet, with about 65 tax credit measures and half a dozen […]

How Many Bills Will Governor Newsom Sign?

February 22 was the deadline for the introduction of bills for consideration during the 2019 California Legislative Session. A total of 2,576 bills were introduced by the deadline. There are about 1,800 Assembly Bills and over 775 Senate Bills that were introduced. This is a higher number than has been introduced in more than half […]

What Happens in the Middle Part of the Legislative Session?

This is the second installment in a 3-part series about the major happenings in the legislative process pursuant to the California Constitution and relevant statutes. Part II is focused on the middle part of the Legislative Session, which is essentially the adoption of the state budget and consideration of bills in their second house. Part […]

Legislative Intent and California Courts

In determining the intent of the Legislature in enacting state laws, California courts have historically taken a limited view of legislative materials that can be used to determine intent. The courts generally rely upon certain types of legislative history documents to gain an understanding of the meaning of a statute and, ultimately, to apply the […]

What Happens in the First Part of the Legislative Session?

This is the first installment in a 3-part series about the major happenings in the upcoming Legislative Session pursuant to the California Constitution and relevant statutes. Part I is focused on the first part of the Legislative Session. Part II focuses on the middle part of the session, and Part III looks at the last […]

2019 Brings Bans on Certain Settlement Agreement Provisions

AB 3109 (Stone) takes effect on January 1, 2019 to make unenforceable any provision in a contract or settlement agreement that prevents a person from testifying in a judicial, administrative or legislative proceeding in response to a court order, subpoena or official request about alleged criminal conduct or sexual harassment. In addition, SB 820 (Leyva) […]

2019 Brings New Lactation Accommodation Requirements for Employers

AB 1976 (Limon) takes effect on January 1, 2019 to require an employer to make reasonable efforts to provide an employee wishing to express breast milk in private with an area in close proximity to her workspace that is not a bathroom. Existing California law requires every employer to provide a reasonable amount of break […]

2019 Brings Clarity to Employer Use of Prior Salary History

AB 2282 (Eggman) takes effect on January 1, 2019 and the new law will provide clarity to employers and job applicants on several provisions of existing California law that is intended to prohibit the use of prior salary history in negotiations between employers and applicants for employment.

2019 Brings New Sexual Harassment Training Requirements

SB 1343 (Mitchell) takes effect on January 1, 2019 to reduce the sexual harassment training requirement threshold from employers with 50 or more employees to employers with 5 or more employees, including non-supervisorial employees in the training. Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers with 50 or more employees to […]