Legislative Bulletin

In response to a petition from the California Labor Federation, Worksafe, and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (CalOSHA) is considering adopting emergency regulations that would require employers to provide respirators, such as N95 face masks, to employees who work outdoors when the air quality is poor…

On Monday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly voted to pass a measure introduced by Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) that would protect the ability of requesters who prevail in CPRA litigation to obtain their attorney’s fees and costs. The vote was 10-1. The bill, SB 518, would prohibit the use of offers to compromise made under…

Increased awareness of deepfake technology appears to have spurred Assemblymember Marc Berman’s (D-Palo Alto) decision this week to expand his fight against the use of deepfakes to the realm of political communications. Earlier in the legislative cycle Assemblymember Berman introduced AB 602, a bill to provide a civil cause of action for individuals whose likenesses…

The Media Law Resource Center is offering free legal workshops for journalists during the month of July. Locations and details are listed below. Legal Workshops for Journalists July 10, The Sacramento Bee July 11, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, San Francisco Hosted by Media Law Resource Center, with support from the Knight Foundation. Attorneys from…

AB 5 introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), a bill that would codify the California Supreme Court’s holding in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court passed out of the Assembly last week on a 59-15 vote. The Court’s decision in Dynamex applied a three-prong standard called the ABC test which replaced the old…

Yesterday, the Senate voted to pass a measure introduced by Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) that would protect the ability of requesters who prevail in CPRA litigation to obtain their attorney’s fees and costs. The mostly partisan vote was 29-9. SB 518 would prohibit the use of offers to compromise made under California Code of Civil…

The Assembly yesterday voted overwhelmingly for AB 289, a bill by Assembly member Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield), which would create a CPRA Ombudsperson in the State Auditor’s Office to review denials of CPRA requests by state agencies. The bipartisan vote was 78-0. The bill is intended to provide an avenue for requesters for whom it may…

A bill authored by Senator Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) to expand the types of commercial animal blood banks allowed in California was passed by the Senate this week without a single no vote. Though SB 202‘s primary aim is to change the rules for operating commercial animal blood banks, the bill also opens access to…

Both the Assembly and Senate this week voted to send labor bills to the other house for consideration: AB 171 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) adds sexual harassment protections for workers into the Labor Code (protections already exist in the Government Code as part of FEHA) and creates a new rebuttable presumption of retaliation…

The Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) recently published an excellent article that discusses some of the most difficult aspects for businesses that have to comply with California’s new privacy law—the California Consumer Privacy Act. Following is the article, originally published in the Media Law Resource Center Bulletin, “Legal Frontiers in Digital Media” (Spring 2019): Tricky…