Question: I am a receiver in a fraud case where there are a lot of investors, trade creditors and secured creditors. Pursuant to my request, the court established a claims procedure and set a deadline for all creditors to file claims with me. A creditor with a lien on one of the estate’s assets did not file a claim, despite my sending it a claim form and notice of the claim filing deadline. Is the creditor entitled to participate in the distribution of estate assets? Does the answer change if it files a late claim? Does the creditor lose its security interest because it did not timely file a ...

On July 17, 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a revised version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.  

By September 18, 2017, employers must begin using this revised Form I-9 for all new hires, reverifications and rehires.  It is not necessary to redo previously completed I-9’s, unless an employee’s employment authorization or documentation of employment has expired.

Until September 18, 2017, employers have a choice:  they may continue to use the I-9 form with a revision date of “11/14/16N”, or begin using the new, revised form.

The new ...

Question: In an operating receivership , do creditors need to be served motions?

Answer: The answer is "no" if the receivership is in state court; the answer is "maybe" if the receivership is in federal court. In a state court receivership, unlike in a bankruptcy case, notice of motions need only be sent to the parties to the receivership case. Creditors having claims against the entity in receivership or the receivership estate are not parties, and hence are not entitled to notice, unless they formally intervene. See generally, C.C.P. §1004, which refers to service on "parties ...

New regulations issued by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) impose additional limitations on an employer’s use of criminal history information, and expand the types of criminal history that employers are prohibited from considering.  Effective July 1, 2017, these regulations prohibit an employer from considering criminal history in employment decisions if doing so would result in an adverse impact on individuals within a protected class, such as race, sex, or national origin.  An applicant or employee has the burden of proving adverse impact, but if ...

As a reminder, the minimum wage in the City of Los Angeles and in the City of Santa Monica will increase to $12.00 an hour on July 1, 2017, for employers with 26 or more employees.  The minimum wage for employers in these cities with fewer than 26 employees will increase to $10.50 an hour on July 1, 2017.

There is another increase set for July 1, 2018, in the City of Los Angeles and Santa Monica that will raise the minimum wage to $13.25 an hour for employers with 26 or more employees. For smaller employers in these cities, the increase on July 1, 2018, will be to $12.00 an hour.

Employers in the City of ...

Question: I am the Receiver for a condo project. A pre-receivership creditor has threatened to sue me because I won’t pay for the services he provided the defendant. I have explained to the creditor that the receivership is not liable for pre-receivership debts of the defendant and that all the assets in the receivership are security for the plaintiff (bank). The creditor has said he does not care, that if I don’t pay him he will sue me and that the court must allow his lawsuit to go forward. Is he correct?

Answer: You did not indicate whether your receivership is in federal or state ...

QUESTION:  I have seen a number of receivers file motions purporting to be interim versions of final accounts and reports, seeking orders approving fees and costs part-way through a receivership. Given that California Rule of Court 3.1183(a) states that all interim fees are reviewable and may be adjusted at the hearing on the Final Account and Report, is there really any point to this practice? Is an order approving interim fees worth the paper it’s written on?  

ANSWER:  Up until earlier this year I would have doubted it. Rule of Court 3.1183(a) states interim fees are just that: interim ...

The recent Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring requires, among other things, that employers post a notice of the ordinance at job sites and workplaces.  The City of Los Angeles has now provided the notice that must be posted along with guidelines and other information regarding the ordinance.  The notice should be placed in a conspicuous location that employees and job applicants can access

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 ...

I have received a few questions from employers about the recent California Supreme Court decision in McGill v. Citibank, N.A..  The McGill case isn’t an employment law case, but rather deals with a consumer class action.  In McGill, the California Supreme Court held that an arbitration provision that attempted to entirely waive an individual’s right to seek public injunctive relief (pursuant to the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), unfair competition law (UCL), and false advertising law) is unenforceable. In so holding, the Court noted that CLRA expressly declares that the ...

QUESTION: I was appointed receiver for an apartment building. I operated the property for six months, then the defendant filed bankruptcy. I filed a claim, as a superseded custodian, under 11 U.S.C. § 543. The debtor objected to my fees and made various other crazy objections. I had to hire counsel to defend my fees and to deal with all the objections. Debtor’s counsel now claims my counsel and I are not entitled to be paid for having to defend my fee request. Is that correct?

ANSWER: The Supreme Court has held that fees incurred in defending fee applications in bankruptcy cases are not ...