USA – CALIFORNIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Steven Kaufhold, Jonathan Gaskin and Urvashi Malhotra, Kaufhold Gaskin LLP
5. Key Trends 5.1 Impact of Key Trends
judgment retains the court’s jurisdiction to enforce the settlement, should that be necessary. A judgment after trial is similar, except that rather than terms being provided by settlement, the judge or jury determines the applicable remedy(ies).
The most noteworthy trend in California collective redress and class actions of the past several years has been the explosion of PAGA class actions, cul- minating in over 5,000 PAGA class actions filed in California in 2023 and legislative reform occurring in 2024. Increased activity in respect of Labour Code enforcement claims under PAGA continues to be a key trend in 2025.
4. Legislative Reform 4.1 Policy Development
The 2024 amendments to PAGA provide employers with increased ability to cure alleged violations and avoid litigation, new caps on penalties that can be imposed, statutory requirements that PAGA cases be manageable, and limits on statutory standing so that a PAGA plaintiff can now only seek penalties for viola- tions that they personally suffered and which affected other employees. It remains to be seen how these reforms will impact PAGA class actions in California. 4.2 Legislative Reform Potential legislative reform is foreshadowed in respect of litigation finance and its disclosure. Proposed leg- islation regarding disclosure of third-party litigation has been introduced, but not yet enacted, in Califor- nia. While state court initial disclosures and a spe- cific Northern District of California rule currently exist, more legislation and regulation are likely in the coming years.
336 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook