CABIA Speaks Up for AB 5’s Victims
If you watched last night’s Presidential Debate in the Bay Area, you might have seen a television ad from the California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA) criticizing the state’s AB 5 law. The same ad aired on national television earlier in the day. The ad features stories from real freelancers, told in their own voices, […]
COVID-19 Doesn’t Slow PAGA Lawsuits
If crisis-weary Californians were looking for profiles in courage, they didn’t find many in the state’s “chaotic” final day of the legislative session. Most disappointing is the legislature’s inability to provide basic relief for business owners under attack from frivolous lawsuits. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic shut down California, trial attorneys didn’t take a break. […]
Sacramento Billboard Calls Out CA Trial Attorneys
The California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA) will launch a mobile billboard in Sacramento today calling out trial attorneys who are getting rich from the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). This harmful law on the books in California allows unscrupulous attorneys to target the state’s businesses unfairly. The digital billboard will be displayed on a […]
The PAGA Gold Rush
The labor union-backed authors of a new report scoff at potential abuses of the state’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), but hundreds of trial lawyers have pursued this modern-day gold rush. One of the state’s top PAGA lawyers even drives a Rolls Royce with the license plate MR. PAGA. PAGA empowers them to use the […]
Labor unions and businesses must unite to fix PAGA
California trial lawyers are licking their chops over a trio of new state employment laws that significantly expand the liability of Golden State businesses. Assembly Bill 5, passed last month, severely restricts the use of contractors. Senate Bill 142, passed this month, adds rules regarding workplace lactation rooms. And, AB 673, also passed this month, […]
The Other 49 States Should Learn From California’s Mistakes
In a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed, former New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse said the other 49 states “have a lot to learn from California” when it comes to labor policy. He’s right, but not in the way he meant it. The rest of the country has a lot to learn from our […]
The Lawsuit Against the PAGA Law Moves Ahead
On June 6, 2019, the California Business and Industrial Alliance appeared in Orange County Superior Court to defend its Due Process and Excessive Fines challenges to the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). The hearing was a follow-on to the March 28, 2019 hearing where the Court (1) rejected the State’s attempt to dismiss CABIA’s Equal […]
A “Legal Earthquake” In The Fight To Fix PAGA
Last week, there was a legal earthquake in California. It had nothing to do with a controversial jury verdict or a special counsel report; rather, it concerned the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). A trade organization I founded, the California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA), sued the state over PAGA last fall, arguing that it […]
California Leads in Class Action Lawsuits
If you own or operate a business in California you most likely already know we have one of the highest workers compensations rates in the nation, highest tax rates, health insurance rates, and recently named number one for the most litigious state. At a certain point you would think our legislators would be embarrassed by […]
Lawsuit Seeks to Have Private Attorneys General Act Declared Unconstitutional
On Wednesday, the California Business & Industrial Alliance (CABIA) representing hundreds of employers filed a complaint in Orange County challenging the Private Attorneys General Act’s (PAGA) constitutionality. The opening synopsis of the complaint asks: Are California business owners who inadvertently make a payroll error equivalent to the worst perpetrators of hate crimes? That’s the twisted […]