03/29/2024

Lawsuit Seeks to Have Private Attorneys General Act Declared Unconstitutional

On Wednesday, the California Business & Industrial Alliance (CABIA) representing hundreds of employers filed a complaint in Orange County challenging the Private Attorneys General Act’s (PAGA) constitutionality.

The opening synopsis of the complaint asks: Are California business owners who inadvertently make a payroll error equivalent to the worst perpetrators of hate crimes? That’s the twisted logic that, more than a decade ago, led the state legislature to pass a harmful law known as PAGA.

PAGA was conceived as a means to help employees right workplace wrongs without further burdening the state bureaucracy. Trial attorneys quickly discovered that they could use the law for their own benefit; today, thousands of PAGA complaints are filed annually against large and small businesses, nonprofit charities, and even labor unions.

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