CALA News & Views | Issue 54 | Impact

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Bills Further Complicating California’s Legal and Employment Environment

AB 1221 (Bryan) would have prohibited employers from using workplace surveillance tools (which were defined very broadly) in any employment decision. Together with a wide coalition of advocates, CALA was able to stop the bill because it would have prevented RCFEs from using technology to provide enhanced resident safety. AB 485 (Ortega) would have forced the Department of Social Services (DSS) to deny license renewals for any company that had an outstanding wage order, taking away DSS’s ability to act in the best interest of residents. CALA helped stop this bill. Unfortunately, CALA was unable to stop AB 251 (Kalra) which allows courts to lower the standard of evidence in claims against RCFEs, skilled nursing facilities and adult community care facilities in a case alleging neglect or abuse of an elder if spoliation occurs. Spoliation is the intentional destruction of information that may be requested in a court case. CALA will be hosting a legal webinar for CALA members to discuss best practices for record retention in light of this new law on December 1 at 10am. Click here to register.

CALA was instrumental in stopping several bills that would have made operating in California more difficult due to the legal environment. While these bills did not pass this year, CALA does expect to continue seeing similar bills in future years and we will continue advocating for a balanced and fair operating environment in California. CALA was an integral part of the coalition that stopped SB 29 (Laird) , a bill that tried to extend a COVID-era allowance for a successor to collect pain and suffering damages for a plaintiff that passes away before a court proceeding concludes in addition to the already allowed remedies for a survivor, such as wrongful death. Since California does not have caps on tort damages, this would have skyrocketed settlement amounts, which would have driven up costs for residents to live in senior living communities. SB 310 (Wiener) was a direct attempt to allow trial attorneys to circumvent the PAGA reforms that the Legislature passed last year. CALA worked with a large business coalition to stop this bill.

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