Claire Beniga, Author at Keller Grover

California judge seeking more information on whether Instacart class action settlement a ‘good deal’

Grocery delivery service Instacart agreed last month to settle for $4.6 million a class action lawsuit file by its “shoppers” alleging that it had misclassified as independent contractors when they were actually employees. But the California judge overseeing the case has put the settlement on hold as the court seeks clarification from the parties—as well as from other Instacart shoppers in the Northeast arbitrating similar claims against the company—on the specifics of the deal. The class … [Read more...]

California court affirms commissioned employees’ right to paid rest breaks

A recent California labor law decision confirms that even commissioned employees must be paid specifically for rest breaks. In Vaquero v. Stoneledge Furniture, the California Court of Appeal held that employers must separately compensate commissioned employees for paid rest breaks required by state laws and regulations. Compensation schemes that fail to do so violate California law and can leave employers exposed to class-action lawsuits from employees. In Vaquero, commissioned former … [Read more...]

Investigation: Sunrun and eHealth

Keller Grover LLP is investigating data breaches involving Sunrun Inc. and eHealthInsurance Services, Inc. According to data breach notifications recently sent to affected employees, Sunrun and eHealth both were the victim of recent email spoofing attacks wherein Sunrun and eHealth employees turned over copies of 2016 employee W-2 forms to cyber criminals. An IRS Tax Form W-2 includes the following highly sensitive information: (1) employee name; (2) employee address; (3) employee Social … [Read more...]

GOP seeks to gut class actions, declaring war on consumers and other victims of big business

Congressional Republicans, emboldened by the GOP’s control over all three branches of the federal government, have launched a frontal assault on consumers with a flurry of bills aimed at crippling the class-action lawsuit. Class actions are often the only way consumers and other victims can hold big businesses accountable for harms that would otherwise be too small to justify individual lawsuits. Those big businesses and their Republican allies in Washington have long sought to gut the power … [Read more...]

When is it OK to record a phone call in California?

When it comes to recording telephone calls and other private conversations, California is a "two-party consent" state. Under the California Invasion of Privacy Act and in particular Penal Code section 632, all parties to the conversation (even if there are more than two) must give their permission or else recording it will be illegal. This applies to plain old eavesdropping, too. The law applies to any "confidential communication,” whether carried on in person or via telegraph, telephone, or … [Read more...]