The EEOC issued final rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regarding employer-sponsored wellness programs which require disability-related information or medical exams, as well as final rules under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), regarding all employer-sponsored wellness programs.  Employers should review the final rules, as the EEOC makes apparent that compliance with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) nondiscrimination rules does not necessarily place an employer in compliance under the ADA or ...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued a guidance to employers regarding an employer’s obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide unpaid leave or extend a paid leave on an unpaid basis beyond its original term as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, provided no undue hardship would result for the employer.

The EEOC clearly views providing unpaid leave as an accommodation to be a significant issue that may require employers to change their usual practices when needed.  Specifically, the EEOC advises that if an ...

Buried in an appropriations bill designed to address no fewer than 42 separate issues is a small, but important item for California employers. In  response to requests for legislative restrictions on the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), the legislature passed State Bill 836, the Governor’s budget bill.  SB 836 includes an amendment to PAGA which provides the Labor Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) with increased oversight of PAGA actions by allowing the LWDA additional time to review and investigate PAGA claims.  There are new requirements for online filing ...

Question: Unauthorized Transfers of Receivership Property: Void, Voidable or Ok?

Answer: In a recent unpublished bankruptcy appellate panel decision (In Re Domum Locis, LLC, 2015 WL 4697747 (9th Cir. BAP 2015)), the BAP reversed the bankruptcy court’s published decision in which the bankruptcy court held that a transfer of property in receivership by the defendant without permission of the receivership court, was void. In Re Domum Locis, LLC, 521 B.R. 661 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2014). The bankruptcy court’s decision was discussed in the Winter/Spring 2015 ...

Question: I have seen various instances where receivers have requested that funds from returned or uncashed checks from a distribution be redistributed to other claimants or used to pay administrative fees or costs. Is this proper? Can the receiver get in trouble for not simply escheating the funds?

Answer: In California, what a receiver is to do with unclaimed funds is specifically governed by California Code of Civil Procedure § 570. It provides: “A receiver having any funds in his hands belonging to a person whose whereabouts are unknown to him, shall ...

Like the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County raised the minimum wage for employers with 26 or more employees to $10.50 starting July 1, 2016. The rule will apply to all workers who work at least 2 hours in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County in a given week.

The Los Angeles County website provides a method to determine if a business is in an unincorporated area of the county.

The Los Angeles County poster can be found here.

This publication is published by the law firm of Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. The publication is intended to present an overview of current legal trends; no article ...

Question: Do you need a confirmation hearing when a receiver is appointed ex parte and are there any exceptions?

Answer: Yes and no. In early practice in California, the appointment of a receiver on an ex parte basis was treated similar to an application for a temporary restraining order, pending the issuance of a preliminary injunction. As in that situation, where a plaintiff sought the appointment of a receiver on an ex parte basis, the appointment was only temporary, pending a hearing on an order to show cause why the appointment of the receiver should not be made ...

In a move which matches its counterparts in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the City of Pasadena is set to increase its minimum wage for employers with 26 or more employees to $10.50 on July 1, 2016, while smaller employers have until July 1, 2017.  The increase applies to employees who work at least 2 hours in a week in Pasadena, as follows:

Employers with 26 or more employees shall pay a wage of no less than the hourly rates set forth:
1. On July 1, 2016, the hourly wage shall be $10.50
2. On July 1, 2017, the hourly wage shall be $12.00
3. On July 1, 2018, the hourly wage shall be $13.25

Employers with 25

An increase in temperatures will not be the only increase employers will see this July: employers in the City of Los Angeles and in the City of Santa Monica are reminded that minimum wages will increase starting on July 1, 2016.  Both the Santa Monica and Los Angeles ordinances apply to any employee who works at least two hours or more within the geographic boundaries of the city within a particular week.  Each ordinance includes a phased increase to reach $15.00 per hour in 2020 for most businesses, with a one year delay to 2021 for businesses with 25 or fewer employees and for qualifying ...

Today President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 into law, culminating a three year, bipartisan effort to create a federal trade secret law that can be used by private parties in civil litigation. Until now, federal trade secrets claims could only be brought by the Attorney General of the United States. Private litigants were subject to trade secret laws which vary from state to state, with 48 states enacting some form of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (New York and Massachusetts were the hold outs).

The DTSA creates a system which includes uniform standards for ...