Plaintiffs' attorneys pursuing claims on behalf of their clients for the nonpayment of wages have long been compelled to abstain from basing any of their clients' claims on Labor Code § 218.5. This is because the language of the statute awards the “prevailing party” their reasonable attorneys' fees and could potentially expose an employee-plaintiff...

On Thursday, June 6, 2013, two former youth coaches for the Chivas USA soccer team filed a lawsuit alleging ethnic discrimination. But this is not your typical case of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity; the plaintiffs are white males who were fired along with eight other white employees. They claim that they were...

The trend is for plaintiffs' attorneys to file representative actions for violation of the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), pursuant to Labor Code section 2698, et seq., rather than class actions.  However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal was presented with an issue of the first impression – whether civil penalties sought under PAGA could...

The IRS has recently announced that the 18% mandatory gratuity policy for large party dining will no longer be categorized as a tip.  Since a “tip” is supposed to be something the customer leaves at their discretion, the compulsory 18% policies utilized by many restaurants today change the character of the money to a...