California Attorney General Rob Bonta is in the unusual position of defending a voter-backed initiative to classify drivers for app-based services as independent contractors while also prosecuting those same companies for not classifying those same drivers as employees. The AG filed his opening brief to overturn a lower court decision finding that Proposition 22 is …
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s judgment in favor of Grubhub in an employee misclassification case and ordered it to review the issue. The court refused to allow a class action certification as the plaintiff – Raef Lawson, a Grubhub driver – and one other driver were the only ones who …
Late last month, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that Proposition 22, the “protect app-based drivers” measure passed by the voters last year, was unconstitutional. The reason given …
The Alameda Superior Court says the Proposition 22 initiative is an illegal infringement on the California Legislature’s constitutionally guaranteed plenary powers to enact a complete system of workers’ compensation. The court says proponents first needed an initiative to amend the state’s constitution before attempting to amend state statutes. The 2020 initiative bankrolled by Uber, Lyft, …
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed a lawsuit filed by gig economy companies Postmates and Uber to block the state from applying AB 5’s ABC test to their past operations. Two drivers had also joined in the challenge. The dismissal was the second in the case, and the court was …
Workers’ Comp Executive launches each new year with the publication of a list of the “Top Stories” from the prior 12 months. Some years are more newsworthy than others, but we certainly had some doozies during what was our 30th year covering the California workers’ comp industry. Beset by the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Newsom followed …
We are now entering the third week after America’s latest rough venture into the harsh environs of elections. There is some clarity in the results even if considerable uncertainty about …