Based on last week’s post about the lawsuit filed against LinkedIn alleging that it violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
, I thought it would be good to point out a few issues the arise when employers conduct background checks. This article is not comprehensive, and this area of the law is very
Five things employers must understand about LinkedIn’s job reference lawsuit
Recently, the issue raised in Sweet v. LinkedIn is whether the Reference Searches functionality offered by LinkedIn is governed by the 
regulations set forth in the FCRA. The Reference Search feature allows users who pay a fee to search for references that have worked with any other LinkedIn member. The results list common employers and
Five statutes that can shift attorney’s fees to employers
You may recall from your college business law class of the “American rule” regarding attorney’s fees: generally in the United States each side is responsible to their own attorney’s fees, and unlike other countries, the loser does not have to pay the other party’s attorney’s fees. Employers can basically ignore this general rule
Five legal concepts every California employer needs to understand
You’ve set up a successful company and begin hiring employees. To be a successful operator in California, a company’s management needs to be familiar with the critical legal concepts in order to successfully navigate California’s complex employment laws. You never wanted to go to law school, but time to hit the, ahem, books (or the
Five best practices for hiring in California
1. CEOs and founders need to be involved in the hiring process.
This is simply something too important for a company to leave to other people. Sam Altman, of Y Combinator, wrote:
The vast majority of founders don’t spend nearly enough time hiring. After you figure out your vision and get product-market fit,
5 common questions about class actions every employer should understand
1. What is a class action?
To understand what a class action is, it is better to start with the basic individual litigation concept. Normally, parties bring their own disputes to court and litigate the case against the other parties who have been officially designated a parties and served with process and understand that they
Friday’s Five: Uber and Lyft class actions show the difficulties of classifying independent contractors in new “sharing economy”
Uber and Lyft have been sued in separate class action lawsuits in California by drivers challenging
the two companies’ classification of the drivers as independent contractors. The plaintiffs in the two cases argue that the drivers should be classified and paid as employees, which triggers many additional Labor Code provisions for the drivers than if
Paid sick leave: resources for California employers to review prior to July 1, 2015 requirements begin
In order to explain the law and answer questions employers have about implementing policies to comply with the requirement that all employers provide up to three paid sick leave days starting July 1, 2015, the Department of Industrial Relations is hosting a free webinar. It is taking place on April 8, 2015, from noon to
Five areas of employee compensation or off-work conduct that cannot be regulated by an employer under California law; plus: Ben Horowitz, the Shmoney Dance and How to Manage
I just discovered How to Start a Startup, which is a series of videos published by Stanford University on YouTube with some outstanding speakers. The problem is that the class videos are so great, I have a hard time turning them off. Case in point, this week I watched Ben Horowitz’ lecture: How to
Personal cell phones at work: Five lessons employers should take away about expense reimbursement set forth in Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Services
Colin Cochran brought a putative class action against his employers, Schwan’s Home Service, on behalf of 1,500 customer service managers who were not reimbursed for expenses pertaining to the work-related use of their personal cell phones. He alleged causes of action for violation of Labor Code section 2802; unfair business practices under Business and Professions