As reviewed in earlier blog posts here and here, employment litigation is a hot topic in the business community. To properly classify workers, business owners need to take into account the various tests created by the Internal Revenue Service, the California Employment Development Department, and California state and federal courts. Click here for a review of the IRS 20 Factor Test. Click here for a review of the IRS Control Test.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post employment litigation is a fast growing area of practice in the State of California. Plaintiff’s lawyers are highly motivated to find even a nominal amount of unpaid wages because they know that they stand to recover all of their attorneys’ fees if employers fight their claims. Not surprisingly, these attorneys’ fees requests can sometimes be somewhat inflated.

Employment litigation is a fast growing area of practice in the State of California. I believe this is largely due to the fact that attorneys’ fees and costs are recoverable by workers who employers failed to comply with California’s wage and hour laws. In other words, plaintiff’s lawyers are highly motivated to find even a nominal amount of unpaid wages because they know that they stand to profit greatly if employers fight their claims.

Throughout the years the San Diego Business Journal has honored and showcased San Diego’s local law firms and individual attorneys.Matt Deen was named to the San Diego Business Journal’s inaugural “Best of the Bar” issue in 2014 and he was also named to the “Best of the Bar” list this month in their 2015 edition.

On September 10, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation requiring all California employers to provide paid sick leave to any employee who worked in California for 30 days. California becomes only the 2nd state in the country with such a requirement, which shows California’s continuing commitment to being a very pro-employee state.

In the previous post, we discussed reasons why estate plans need to be monitored and periodically updated. Here, we look at two common reasons to take a quick peek at your estate plan to make sure everything is working as designed.

Needless to say, if your financial situation has changed substantially since you last met your estate planning lawyer, it may be well worth your time to sit down with him or her to discuss how your balance sheet has changed, for better or for worse.

After deciding to implement an estate plan, many people procrastinate for months (even years) before they finally reach out to an attorney to have one prepared for them. Add that to the fact that, despite my best efforts to make the process as painless as possible, it can be an unpleasant conversation for most people. After all, who wants to contemplate their own death?

Believe it or not, LLCs are not actually required by law to have written operating agreements in California (CA Corporations Code §17701.02(s)). Unlike corporations, there are essentially very few requirements of LLCs, and this is viewed as one of benefits of LLCs over corporations. Even though California law does not require a written LLC Operating Agreement, there are plenty of good reasons to have one.