Blogs By: Scott Shibayama, Esq.

Recent rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States have called into question key California arbitration decisions.  US Supreme Court decisions such as Preston v. Ferrer (2008), Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. (2010), AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion (2011), and American Express v. Italian Colors Rest. (2013) have made clear federal…Read More

We recently posted on class arbitration rules for business.  Just 10 days later, the US Supreme Court has issued another ruling enforcing class arbitration waivers in binding arbitration agreements. The case is American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant (6/20/2013).  It says a large charge card company can require…Read More

In a trio of cases since 2010, the US Supreme Court has telegraphed “best practices” for avoiding class arbitrations for consumer and employee claims. Best Practices To Avoid Class Actions And Class-Wide Arbitration First the “best practices.”  If you are a businesses that wants to…Read More

A California Court of Appeals has put another nail in the coffin for piece rate systems in California.  Bluford v. Safeway Stores, Inc. (5/24/2013) ruled California employers are “required to separately compensate for rest periods” and cannot compensate for them  by including them in a piece…Read More

A wave of vacation policy issues has crashed our firm’s practice recently.  A client’s employee handbook vacation policy had to be tweaked to comply with California law.  Another client needed advice on how to terminate an employee who insisted on taking vacation after their request…Read More

If your business has been sued you want the case to be over as soon as possible with the least overall cost.  This is particularly true if it is a class, collective or other representative action.  The U.S. Supreme Court in Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk,…Read More

With new California “wage and hour” cases coming out almost daily one should not be surprised that many previously unchallenged well-established California employer wage and hour practices are now being called into question.  One of those practices is piece rate compensation. What Is A Piece…Read More

This is a recurring workplace issue that continues to surprise us.  We would think after all the sex harassment publicity it would not be a Top 10 employment and labor law issue. As a small/medium business owner, you have a target on your back.  But…Read More

Both the state and federal governments have been cracking down on independent contractor status.  They call it “misclassification” of employees as independent contractors.  In their eyes all workers are employees; none are “independent contractors.”  Essentially any worker who performs work for your business and who…Read More

California law requires an off duty unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes for every five hours worked.  The failure to provide the meal period results in a penalty of one hour at the employee’s regular hourly rate of pay (Labor Code section 226.7 –…Read More