Federal, State, County and City minimum wages can vary, but employers will be safe if they remember to comply with the highest applicable minimum wage in their location. For auto dealers located in the City of Los Angeles (this includes areas like East and South Los Angeles, Greater Hollywood, and Van Nuys), the minimum wage rises to $10.50 per hour on July 1, 2016. This is a good time to update your pay plans if necessary, and ensure that payroll is aware of the upcoming change.

Dealers should get ready for the return of the days of consumer class actions seeking rescission of four years worth of deal files. A drastic change in the law may revive these killer class actions in mid-2017. Here, at the Scali Law Firm, we've been advocating corporate compliance and ethics programs due, in part, to this impending change, so that dealers can limit their liability before the change goes into effect.

The California Supreme Court has provide some clarity regarding "suitable seating" requirements for employees. To avoid a class action, Dealers should conduct a review and analysis now to determine compliance.

There's loads of instructional case authority interpreting employer obligations to reasonably accommodate disabilities under the Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA") and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). But there's little pertaining to associational disability discrimination (yeah, it's a thing—discrimination against a person based on that person's association or relationship with someone who has a disability). Until now.

Customer information is often one of the many assets transferred in the sale of a dealership. Customer information is subject to privacy, solicitation, and data security laws regulating its disclosure and use. This article provides a basic overview of some of the main privacy concerns that a selling dealer faces when transferring customer information.

Lawsuits arising from motor vehicle collisions often include a claim against the owner of the vehicle because California law permits an award of damages against the vehicle owner for the negligence of a permissive user. For dealers operating their own vehicle rental operation the potential liability, as well as the cost of defending the lawsuit, is a significant burden. Our firm has successfully used a provision of federal law, commonly known as the Graves Amendment, to convince plaintiff’s lawyers not to file suit against our rental company clients, or to defeat the vicarious liability claim on summary judgment.

With all the recent publicity surrounding increases in state and local minimum wage requirements and concern about how those increases could affect auto dealers, recent changes to another set of employee compensation rules have received substantially less attention. The U.S Department of Labor has made changes to its regulations that will more than double minimum salary requirements for while collar workers, which warrants proactive planning on the part of dealers and businesses in general.

Beverly Hills is known for its swanky stores and hotels with first-class service. But for your next visit, the driver of your shuttle might be a software program.

On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) which creates a federal civil cause of action for trade secret theft. The law provides trade secret owners alternatives to navigating varied state trade secret laws or seeking assistance from the Department of Justice.

The Scali Law Firm is mentioned in the SMCDA’s Newsletter, The Accelerator, in connection with the Automotive Parts Litigation Class Action Settlement.