A recent California Court of Appeal decision reminds employers that discrimination and harassment cases can produce substantial emotional distress awards – even where the employee did not seek mental health treatment or present expert testimony concerning his or her mental or emotional condition. In Glick v. City of…
Two recent cases explain the risks that arise when clients use AI to address legal issues.
The recent hantavirus outbreak linked to an international cruise ship has once again put infectious disease risk, and mandates aimed at mitigating that risk, in the public spotlight. While health officials emphasize that the risk to the general public remains extremely low, the outbreak has triggered a familiar legal question: how far must…
A California federal court in Lacey v. State Farm recently issued a dramatic example of the consequences to lawyers and their clients of trusting artificial intelligence. In what the court described as a “collective debacle,” a large team of high-profile attorneys submitted a brief with faulty – hallucinatory…
California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) deputizes any employee who has experienced a violation of virtually any state employment law to sue to recover penalties arising out of violations he or she experienced – plus penalties arising out of violations committed against every one of his or her…
The popularity and accessibility of artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools, such as ChatGPT and Bard, have grown exponentially this year. However, the careless use of these tools in legal settings can lead to embarrassment and even sanctions. To test how reliable AI is for even basic legal research, we…
Ronald Hittle was the Fire Chief in Stockton, California. In May 2010, the City received an anonymous letter describing Hittle as a “corrupt, racist, lying, religious fanatic who should not be allowed to continue as the Fire Chief of Stockton.” It was later revealed that the letter came…
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled, in Groff v. DeJoy, that employers have a heightened duty to accommodate their employees’ religious practices.
California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (known as the “Paid Sick Leave Law” or “PSLL”) requires employers to provide employees, with a few narrow exceptions, three days of paid sick leave each year. The PSLL does not give employees a private right of action, meaning that employees can’t…