Aerotek, Inc. v. The Johnson Group Staffing Co., 2020 WL 5525180 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) The law firm Porter Scott, P.C., defended its client The Johnson Group Staffing (TJG) through two rounds of litigation against claims asserted by TJG’s chief competitor Aerotek. In the litigation, Aerotek alleged that TJG (whose founder came from Aerotek) misappropriated trade secrets by soliciting Aerotek’s customers. Aerotek lost the underlying cases and was ordered to pay prevailing-party attorney fees in…

Davidson v. O’Reilly Auto Enter., LLC, 968 F.3d 955 (9th Cir. 2020) Kia Davidson worked as a delivery specialist at one of O’Reilly’s stores in San Bernardino. In this putative class action, Davidson alleged that she and other employees did not receive their rest breaks as required by state law based upon the fact that O’Reilly’s policy documents required 10-minute rest breaks for every four hours of work but did not include the language of…

Li v. Department of Indust. Relations, 2020 WL 4814112 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) Fushan Li, the owner of four massage parlors in Lawndale, received three citations from the Labor Commissioner for violations of the state’s wage and hour laws. Citations ordering Li to pay a total of $198,576 in unpaid wages and liquidated damages were issued in 2017. After filing a petition for writ of mandate in the superior court challenging the Labor Commissioner’s decision,…

Salter v. Quality Carriers, Inc., 2020 WL 5361459 (9th Cir. 2020) Clayton Salter, a truck driver, filed this putative class action against his employer, Quality Carriers and Quality Distribution, alleging that he and the other class members had been misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees. Quality removed the action to federal court, asserting the amount in controversy exceeded $5 million as required by the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). The district court granted Salter’s…

Starks v. Vortex Indus., Inc., 2020 WL 5015248 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) Chad Starks gave notice to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) of his allegations that his employer (Vortex) had violated certain Labor Code requirements that employers pay overtime wages and provide meal and rest periods and comply with various other requirements of the Labor Code. After the LWDA failed to respond, Starks filed a complaint alleging violations of the Private Attorneys General…

Arnold v. Dignity Health, 53 Cal. App. 5th 412 (2020) Virginia M. Arnold worked as a medical assistant at Dignity Health before her employment was terminated for, among other things, failure to safeguard a patient’s personal health information (a HIPAA violation); display of inappropriate materials in the workplace (a picture of a bare-chested male model); careless performance of duties; failure to communicate honestly during the course of an investigation; and failure to take responsibility for…

Judd v. Weinstein, 967 F.3d 952 (9th Cir. 2020) Actor Ashley Judd brought this sexual harassment claim against motion picture producer Harvey Weinstein under Cal. Civil Code § 51.9, which prohibits such harassment in the context of a “business, service, or professional relationship” between the plaintiff and a physician, psychotherapist, dentist, attorney, real estate agent, accountant, banker, trust officer, executor, trustee, landlord or property manager, teacher, among others, including “a relationship that is substantially similar…