Labor & Employment Law Blog

The courts in Los Angeles are creating controversy over attorneys’ fees awards—a tale in three parts.

In Pollock v. Kelso, 107 Cal. App. 5^th 1190 (2025), Pollock sued for sexual harassment and racial discrimination. The trial court granted summary judgment, and the court of appeal affirmed. The California Supreme court reversed, and on remand, the Court of Appeal awarded appellate costs to Pollock.  Pollock moved for $526,475.63 in attorneys’ fees, and the court awarded $493,577.10.  Defendant appealed.  The summary judgment motion was reversed, and a trial was set.  The parties settled the case except for the appeal on the attorneys’ fees, and filed a stipulation with the court stating, “The court DISMISSES this entire action with prejudice as to all parties and all causes of action.”

In March of 2022, new legislation curtailing the arbitration of sexual harassment and sexual assault claims, titled the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (“EFAA”) was passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Biden. The bipartisan motivation behind EFAA was to give survivors of sexual abuse their day in court and eliminate the secretive element of arbitration that often shields these accusations from public scrutiny.  Since then, courts have continued to work out the scope of EFAA. 

Wow, an employment lawyer arguing to embrace love in the workplace. Did he fail sexual harassment 101? Has he not read the headlines about Blake Lively? Employers, as Valentine’s Day approaches, may be contemplating writing policies regarding workplace romances, conducting training on appropriate interactions in the workplace, and even going so far as to prepare love contracts for workplace romances to ensure they are consensual. I, on the other hand, want to know when did love became a four-letter word? Is there a place for love in the workplace? I think the answer is a resounding yes!

In light of the unprecedented wildfires in the Los Angeles area which commenced on January 7, 2025, the DLSE published a Frequently Asked Questions website to provide guidance to California employers on laws enforced by the Labor Commissioner’s office.

I. Summary

On December 30, 2024, and just before the New Year struck, the California Court of Appeal issued a favorable employer decision on the enforceability of arbitration agreements in Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) cases. In Leeper v. Shipt, Inc., (2024 WL 5251619), the Second District Court of Appeal, Division One, in Los Angeles, held that because every PAGA action necessarily includes an “individual PAGA claim,” PAGA plaintiffs cannot attempt to avoid arbitration by characterizing their lawsuit as a purely representative PAGA claim made on behalf of only other allegedly aggrieved employees, but not the named representative themself. In other words, the court would not allow a “headless” PAGA action to proceed. Accordingly, the court directed the trial court to order the plaintiff, Christina Leeper’s individual PAGA claim to arbitration and stay the representative action in accordance with California Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.4.  This guidance should help end recent attempts by many plaintiffs attempting to circumvent arbitration by “disclaiming” their own individual claims in order to represent only others.

Employees widely use AI often without the knowledge of management. This secret use of AI has been referred to as “shadow IT” in an article by Business Insider. AI is typically used for either content creation or content editing. Content creation includes such tasks as ideation, research assistance, and summarization. Content editing comprises spell check, grammar check, and use of a thesaurus for synonyms. As the use of AI becomes more pervasive in the workplace, one of the big downsides of using AI is its reliability. “Hallucinations” occur frequently when using AI, which causes employers to question the trustworthiness of the work product. It is becoming more challenging to distinguish between human and machine writers as AI writing tools advance.