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Featured Insights

Payne & Fears provides high quality legal and business insights, and we are committed to delivering practical and timely updates for a diverse range of issues, businesses and industries.

Labor and Employment Law
Feb 03 | Labor and Employment Law
Feb 03
OSHA Issues Guidance On Mitigating, Preventing Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace
By: Amy R. Patton, Blake A. Dillion
On January 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued new employer guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. This guidance is intended to help employers and workers outside the healthcare setting to identify risks of being exposed to and of contracting COVID-19 and to determine any appropriate control measures to implement. While this guidance is largely duplicative of prior OSHA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) guidance and recommendations, it contains a few new and updated recommendations that employers should note.
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Insurance Coverage
2020 | Insurance Coverage
2020
Ninth Circuit Rejects Excess Insurer's Attempt to Dispute Exhaustion of Underlying Insurance
By: J. Kelby Van Patten, Jared De Jong
This week, in AXIS Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corp., ____ F.3d ____, 2020 WL 5509743 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), the Ninth Circuit addressed an important question of first impression: When can an excess insurer second-guess an underlying insurer’s decision to pay a claim? Prior to AXIS Reinsurance, there had been no California or the Ninth Circuit case discussing an excess insurer’s right to make a covered-claims challenge to the exhaustion of underlying insurance, even though policyholders frequently encounter such arguments.
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Business Litigation
2020 | Business Litigation
2020
Changing Your Terms and Conditions? If So, Your Company Must Provide Express Notice to Consumers
By: David A. Grant
The Ninth Circuit recently reminded companies that they must provide notice to consumers when they change their terms and conditions, even where original terms state that they are subject to change at-will and at any time (i.e. the original contract contains a “change-of-terms” provision). Without express notice to the consumer, any change is unenforceable.
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Case Summary, Labor and Employment Law
May 10 | Case Summary, Labor and Employment Law
A man sitting at a desk writing with a pen and paper.
May 10
KEY CALIFORNIA EMPLOYMENT LAW CASES: APRIL 2021
By: Matthew C. Lewis, Rana Ayazi, Tyler B. Runge
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Legal Alert, Insurance Coverage
May 06 | Legal Alert, Insurance Coverage
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
May 06
Texas Supreme Court Gives Policyholders a Greater Voice When Settling Covered Claims
By: Nathan A. Cazier
The Texas Supreme Court recently increased policyholders’ influence over an insurer’s right to settle a third-party claim for less than policy limits.
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Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
Apr 28 | Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
Apr 28
Ninth Circuit Joins California Court of Appeal in Rejecting FAAAA Preemption of AB 5 as Applied to Motor Carriers
By: Amy R. Patton, Tyler B. Runge
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held today that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (“FAAAA”) does not preempt application of California’s Assembly Bill 5 (“AB 5”), codified as amended at Labor Code section 2775, against motor carriers.
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Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
Apr 19 | Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
Apr 19
California Establishes Right to Rehire For Certain Workers Laid Off During Pandemic
By: Leila S. Narvid, Matthew C. Lewis
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 93 into law. The bill requires employers in specified hospitality and business services-related industries to offer to rehire certain workers who were laid off during the pandemic, before offering those positions to new hires, and to notify individuals not being rehired due to lack of qualifications about the employer’s decision to hire another worker.
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Case Summary, Labor and Employment Law
Apr 12 | Case Summary, Labor and Employment Law
A man sitting at a desk writing with a pen and paper.
Apr 12
Key California Employment Law Cases: March 2021
By: Alejandro G. Ruiz, Megan A. Mackie, Tyler B. Runge
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Article, Business Litigation
Apr 07 | Article, Business Litigation
A table with a green plant, coffee cup, and a stack of print publications.
Apr 07
Protecting Information While Working from Home – One Year Later
By: Blake A. Dillion
One year after COVID caused companies to send droves of employees home to work remotely, how well did those employees do at protecting their clients’ and their company’s confidential information and what can they do better as they continue to work from home?
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Legal Alert, Business Litigation
Apr 02 | Legal Alert, Business Litigation
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
Apr 02
Businesses Receive Clarity on What Automated Calls and Texts Violate the TCPA
By: Randy R. Haj, Scott O. Luskin
The Supreme Court’s Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid decision finally settled the confusion over what equipment constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system (a robodialer) that can violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
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Legal Alert, Insurance Coverage
Mar 22 | Legal Alert, Insurance Coverage
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
Mar 22
Texas Supreme Court to Review Eight-Corners Duty-to-Defend Rule
By: Jared De Jong
The Texas Supreme Court has accepted certified questions from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to clarify Texas’ eight-corners rule for determining the existence of a duty to defend.
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Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
Mar 22 | Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
Mar 22
California Expands COVID Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Provisions
By: Amy R. Patton, Matthew C. Lewis
On March 19, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 95, thereby expanding California’s COVID supplemental paid sick leave provisions (“COVID leave”). California’s prior supplemental paid sick leave requirements (which flowed initially from the governor’s executive action, and then from AB 1867) expired on Dec. 31, 2020. SB 95, which extends and expands those prior protections, applies retroactively to Jan. 1, 2021. The leave requirements will run through Sept. 30, 2021, with the exception that if an employee is on COVID leave at the time the law expires, the employee will be entitled to the full amount of leave required, even if the leave extends beyond the expiration of the law. Below are the key elements of the new law that employers should be aware of.
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