Advocates for Justice

There have been significant changes to the California Code of Civil Procedure, all of which center on one unifying theme: judicial efficiency. Below are brief discussions of the changes to procedural statutes regarding demurrers, 998 offers, and summary judgment motions. 

Effective January 1, 2016, Assembly Bill (AB) 1509 prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee who is a family member of a whistleblower. Specifically, the bill “extend[s] the protections of these provisions…to an employee who is a family member of a person who engaged in, or was perceived to engage in, the protected conduct.” 

A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute on mandatory arbitration, compiling data from five years and over 1,200 cases administered by the American Arbitration Association, found that employees subject to mandatory arbitration agreements achieve lower rates of success and lower recoveries than similar claims adjudicated in federal and state courts.  Thus, employers who require arbitration as a condition of employment are able to decrease the potential consequences of later illegal or discriminatory conduct.  The study is available online here.