On June 28, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered that bars in seven California counties close. These counties are: Los Angeles, Fresno, Kern, San Joaquin, Tulare, Kings and Imperial. 

The state has also recommended, but not ordered that eight other counties issue local health orders closing bars: Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Stanislaus.

The order and recommendations are a result of an increase in new cases and hospitalizations across the state.

Following the order, the Los Angeles County Department of ...

Food manufacturers are playing a crucial role during the COVID-19 crisis by supporting various essential businesses and keeping products on the shelves for consumers. The pandemic has disrupted their day-to-day operations and required new protocols for sanitation, social distancing in the workplace, and the distribution of products that are high in demand. Additionally, food manufacturers are required to comply with strict labeling regulations designed to keep consumers fully informed about the contents of their food. These regulations required that manufacturers alter ...

Restaurants whose operations have been shut down due to the coronavirus crisis are looking to their business interruption or business income insurance policies for relief, and have found resistance from insurance companies paying these claims.

As a general matter, in order to trigger coverage those policies require (1) direct physical loss or damage; (2) to covered property: (3) arising from a covered peril; and (4) resulting in the suspension of the business’ operations.

In cases where coverage is triggered, an insured business may be entitled to recover the net income it would ...

California's Secretary of State announced that the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) has qualified for the state's November ballot. Real estate mogul, Alastair Mactaggart, has done it again.  After successfully getting the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) passed by Sacramento in record time for fear that the CCPA would be on the November 2018 ballot, Mactaggart has once again obtained the required 623,212 signatures to do the same with the CPRA in 2020. If passed, the CPRA would build on the underlying principles of the CCPA by permitting consumers to ...

California’s legislative season is in full swing, and the California State Assembly and State Senate are advancing bills that will affect the food, beverage, and hospitality industry, with a focus on the restaurant industry.

State legislators have shown an interest in regulating food delivery platforms. Several cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have capped delivery fees that these platforms, including Grubhub, Door Dash, Uber Eats and Postmates, can charge restaurants at least for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concerns have also been raised by ...

By January 1, 2021, California employers with five or more employees are required to have provided interactive harassment prevention training to all employees in California, both supervisory and non-supervisory. After considerable delay, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) recently released online training to meet the harassment training requirement for non-supervisors. The training is provided at no cost to employers. 

The non-supervisory online harassment prevention training can be found here. Online training for non-supervisors is ...

In a landmark 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States held that workplace discrimination on the basis of an employee’s LGBTQ status is in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The Court’s opinion can be found here.

Until now, workers in more than half the states lacked legal protection from employment discrimination based on their LGBTQ status.  The Court’s decision rests on a strict reading of Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of “sex”.  It concludes that extending that “sex” prohibition to include discrimination on the ...

Los Angeles County issued protocols that the non-essential businesses listed below must follow in connection with reopening. 

Prior to reopening, each of these businesses must implement and complete the applicable protocol found below, and post a copy of the completed protocol at all public entrances to its facility.

Additionally, each protocol requires certain signage be posted to alert the public about various COVID-19 safety measures that must be followed, and that similar information be included on the business website.  In some cases, businesses must communicate to their ...

Beginning July 1, 2020, the maximum benefit period under California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) program will increase from 6 weeks to 8 weeks during any 12-month period.  The PFL program, which is a part of California’s state disability insurance program, provides partial wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off from work:

• To care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or domestic partner; or
• To bond with a minor child within one year of the birth or placement of the child through foster care or adoption.

The PFL program does not ...

The fourth and final part of this CCPA client alert series focuses on certain training and record-keeping requirements pursuant to the CCPA.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) and the related proposed Attorney General Regulations (the “Regulations”) provide California consumers with increased privacy rights and protections with respect to their personal information. Businesses that are subject to the CCPA must comply with various notice obligations and requirements related to the collection, deletion and sale of personal information. The ...

Part three of this CCPA client alert series focuses on the obligations for service providers pursuant to the CCPA.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) and the related proposed Attorney General Regulations (the “Regulations”) provide California consumers with increased privacy rights and protections with respect to their personal information. Businesses that are subject to the CCPA must comply with various notice obligations and requirements related to the collection, deletion and sale of personal information. The California Attorney General ...

The City of Los Angeles has launched an “L.A. Al Fresco” Program aimed at helping restaurants reopen while following COVID-19 physical distancing guidelines. 

The program will allow restaurants to use their sidewalk and private parking lots spaces to increase their outdoor dining capacity.  Through the program, the City will offer streamlined, immediate approval for eligible restaurants to provide outdoor dining in sidewalks and private parking lots.  The approval will also allow restaurants to serve alcohol in these areas.

L.A. Al Fresco was launched on May 29, 2020 and the ...

Part two of this CCPA client alert series focuses on how to verify and respond to consumer requests.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) and the related proposed Attorney General Regulations (the “Regulations”) provide California consumers with increased privacy rights and protections with respect to their personal information. Businesses that are subject to the CCPA must comply with various notice obligations and requirements related to the collection, deletion and sale of personal information. The California Attorney General intends to begin ...

Running out of things to do during the COVID-19 crisis? 

You are in luck. Yesterday the California Department of Education released a lengthy, 55 page guidance on the reopening of public schools. You can find the guidebook for the safe reopening of California's public schools here. Enjoy!

This blog is presented under protest by the law firm of Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. It is essentially the random thoughts and opinions of someone who lives in the trenches of the war that often is employment law–he/she may well be a little shell-shocked. So if you are thinking “woohoo, I just landed some ...

COVID-19 is wreaking havoc worldwide. It has even infected the real estate industry, particularly the tax aspects of operating in the real estate industry such as Section 1031 like-kind exchanges.

The basics of like-kind exchanges remain unchanged, notwithstanding COVID-19: No gain is recognized if real property held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment is exchanged solely for real property of a like kind to be held for such purposes. But with deferred and reverse exchanges being the norm and simultaneous exchanges being the exception, it is now virtually ...

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) and the related proposed Attorney General Regulations (the “Regulations”) provide California consumers with increased privacy rights and protections with respect to their personal information. Businesses that are subject to the CCPA must comply with various notice obligations and requirements related to the collection, deletion and sale of personal information. The California Attorney General intends to begin enforcing the CCPA and the Regulations on July 1, 2020.

This client alert provides a summary of the ...

To assist California business owners with insurance coverage questions concerning damages relating to the current civil unrest, the Department of Insurance issued a Fact Sheet, found here.

The Fact Sheet includes the types of coverage that may apply to damages due to civil unrest and tips for businesses with claims.

This blog is presented under protest by the law firm of Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. It is essentially the random thoughts and opinions of someone who lives in the trenches of the war that often is employment law–he/she may well be a little shell-shocked. So if you are thinking ...

On June 3, 2020, the Los Angeles City Council adopted an ordinance capping third-party food delivery services fees at 15% for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The ordinance will become part of the City’s Municipal Code.

The new ordinance makes it unlawful for a third-party food delivery service to charge a restaurant a fee per online order of more than 15% of the purchase price of the order. The ordinance is designed to protect the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, when dine-in was prohibited. The ordinance is set to expire 90 days after the ...

On Friday, May 29^th, both the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles announced that dine-in restaurants are permitted to reopen. Both the city and county have also issued guidelines for restaurants to follow in the reopening of their dine-in operations.

The County of Los Angeles’ protocols for the reopening of on-site dining for restaurants and other permanent retail food operations are found here.

At this time, bars are not permitted to reopen except for food take-out orders, but they are covered in the city’s guidelines for planning purposes. Further, the State of ...