For plaintiff employment law attorneys, the most notable developments of 2017 (and early 2018) are the staggering steps that the administration in Washington has taken to eviscerate the rights of employees. Indeed, immediately upon taking office, the administration launched a wide-ranging crusade to curtail employee protections in virtually every area impacting the employment relationship from wage and hour laws to anti-discrimination laws to occupational health and safety laws and regulations, to the unionized workplace.
Luckily, for those plaintiff employment lawyers living in California, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., the California State Legislature, and the appellate courts, whether federal or state, have continued to protect and expand employee rights. This is particularly true not just with regard to recent employment-related legislation but also with respect to cases addressing summary judgment where the Ninth Circuit and the California Courts of Appeal have continued a recent trend of reversing grants of summary judgment favoring employers and, in doing so, explaining why most employment cases should be decided by a jury.
This article will briefly summarize new employment-related legislation and then examine what appears to be a growing recognition by the courts that summary judgment is usually inappropriate in employment cases…
To read the entire article, please go to https://www.cela.org/bulletin/february-2018/practice-guide/