Breastfeeding has been proven to provide impressive benefits to young children and their mothers. In fact, the state of California has passed numerous laws in the last two decades to promote breastfeeding, educate new mothers, and protect their rights to breastfeed. If you are a new, working mother, or a new mother ready to re-enter the workplace, you need to be aware of your legal rights. Employer Must Make Accommodations For Breast Milk Expression In 2001, the California legislature amended the California Labor Code to add protections to breastfeeding mothers in the workplace. Labor Code 1030 requires that: “Every employer, including the state and any political subdivision, shall provide a reasonable amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee’s infant child. The break time shall, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. Break time for an employee that does not run concurrently with…Read More
University Of Phoenix Targeted The Military In June 2015, a investigative story broke that the University of Phoenix was making payments of $250,000 per year to the military for access to military bases. What was the University doing there? They were holding recruiting fairs and other activities with the purpose of convincing active military members to enroll at the University of Phoenix. The reason they were doing this is because of a loophole in the “90/10” law, which allows for-profit colleges to double dip into federal funding when they have access to a military member’s G.I. Bill benefits. Basically, there is an enormous financial incentive to target military members. In fact, as of 2015, University of Phoenix was the nation’s most prolific beneficiaries of G.I. Bill money, collecting over $1 billion since 2009. University Of Phoenix Lives Off Federal Money Beyond military benefits, University of Phoenix makes its’ primary living from Federal student loans. Before…Read More
Homeowner’s insurance policies are designed to protect us if and when the unexpected happens. Unfortunately, not all home damage is protected, and in some cases coverage varies depending on your policy. But what if your home, or part of your home, collapses? Although it may seem like a cut-and-dry case for insurance coverage, this may not always hold true. In most cases, coverage depends on several complex factors, and can result in insurance litigation. Most standard homeowner’s policies define a collapse as “an abrupt falling down or caving in of a building or any part of a building with the result that the building or part of the building cannot be occupied for its current intended purpose.” A building or part of a building that is in danger of falling down is not considered to be in a state of collapse, even if it is bending, leaning, sagging, cracking, bulging or showing other evidence of decay. In…Read More
California has strong laws that protect employees. One area of these protections, established by the California Labor Code and a perpetually growing body of case law from the Appellate Courts, is breaks for employees. Employers are required to provide rest and lunch breaks to their employees if they work a certain number of hours each day. Unfortunately, employers often try to get around these laws or find ways to violate them. If you work in California, know the employers are required to provide the following breaks. Employees who work more than three and a half hours a day are entitled to a ten minute rest break for every four hours of work. This time must be paid, and the employer cannot require the employee to work during this time. Generally, employers give this break in the middle of each interval; however, the California Supreme Court has given employers more “latitude” when this is “infeasible.” An…Read More
Government Code 12940(a) prohibits discriminatory employment actions, including decisions regarding hiring, firing, compensation, and conditions based on a person’s sex status. The legal definition of sex under the code includes “Gender expression”, which means “a person’s gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.” People who identify as transgender are thereby one of the classes of people protected from employer discrimination. The California Fair Employment and Housing Council recently enacted additional protections for transgender persons. Effective July 1, 2017, new regulations take effect, which recognize and protect people transitioning, offers privacy protections, and bathroom protections. Bathroom Protection Regulations regarding working conditions have been expanded to allow for bathroom protections for transgender persons. Employers are legally required to provide “Equal access to comparable, safe, and adequate facilities shall be provided to employees without regard to the sex of the employee.” The key word in the amended regulation is the word…Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission claims that Barclays PLC overbilled clients of its asset management business for tens of millions of dollars and committed other wrongdoing. It had charged the bank civilly, and Barclays agreed this week to settle the matter without admitting or denying wrongdoing. According to Reuters, the SEC found that Barclays had put some of its brokerage clients in expensive share classes even though less expensive classes were available, causing those clients to pay excess sales charges on their mutual funds. Other clients — around 2,000 — signed up for due diligence and monitoring services that Barclays never performed. A third group of clients — representing 22,138 accounts — ended up paying extra money to the financial services giant due to billing errors and other miscalculations. All in all, the SEC estimates that the overbillings added up to around $50 million. “Each set of clients who were harmed are being refunded through…Read More
When President Trump was elected, advocates of for-profit college regulation were concerned about his plans for the Department of Education. Their fears were realized when he nominated Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and had a “listening session” with colleges like DeVry. Adding further insult, in March 2017, President Trump (who was also the namesake of Trump University) took steps to roll back Obama’s protections for students in default on their student loans. Bible V. USA Funds, Inc. During the Obama administration, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals considered the case of Bryana Bible. Ms. Bible took out a student loan in 2006. Six years later, she defaulted on the loan and entered into a rehabilitation agreement with USA Funds, a student loan company. Despite their agreement and her compliance with her payment plan, USA Funds assessed a $4547.44 collection costs on Ms. Bible. When Ms. Bible appealed the case to the Seventh Circuit, the…Read More
When you quit a job, things can get very bad, very quickly. Whether you were planning to quit or simply could not take it and impulsively quit, losing your primary source of income hits hard. It likely means that you will struggle or fail to pay rent, a car payment, car insurance, a phone bill, utilities, or credit cards bills. That is why your final paycheck from your employer is so important, because it is that last influx of money to tide you until you find another job. Fortunately, California has some of the most employee friendly laws when it comes to final pay. These laws establish strict and swift timeframes in which an employer must deliver a final pay check to an employee who quits. Calendar mark with Quit job Did The Employee Give Notice? The speed with which an employee gets their final paycheck depends on whether they provided their employer at least…Read More
Enacted in 1970, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) was designed with the purpose “to protect consumers against unfair and deceptive business practices and to provide efficient and economical procedures to secure such protection.” As the title and purpose suggest, this is an incredibly powerful tool that protects consumers and makes it unlawful for a business to make misrepresentations that result in a consumer purchasing a good or service. What Does The CLRA Cover? Virtually any misrepresentation by a business is covered, including bait-and-switch, fake goods, fake price reductions, solicitation, false advertisement, and more. There are twenty-three listed misrepresentations that have been deemed to be unlawful, including: Misrepresenting the affiliation, connection, or association with, or certification by, another. Representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities which they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection which he or she does not…Read More
During President Obama’s administration, numerous for-profit colleges, like ITT and Corinthian College went out of business due to increased Federal regulations and fewer students enrolling. This trend was put on hold with the election of President Trump, who has virtually eliminated President Obama’s regulations. As a result, massive for-profit colleges like DeVry are now seeing their stock prices skyrocket. Despite this, Westech College, a for-profit trade school in California, closed its doors in early April. With locations in Fontana, Moreno Valley and Victorville, Westech offered numerous trade degrees, such as HVAC service, computer systems service, and medical and veterinary assistant programs. The closure of the schools was unexpected to its 500 students and its faculty alike, many of whom came to school on a Monday morning to simply find the buildings locked. One teacher told the Fontana Herald News that “All this time, [Westech] kept us in the dark; they didn’t tell us anything.” In…Read More
