Analysis
Commentary
Timely analysis of California employment law developments, pending Supreme Court decisions, and defense strategy updates. Each piece is dated and left as written. Where the law later moves, a new piece is published rather than an old one revised — so an entry here records what was knowable on its date, not what turned out to be true. The publications section is the opposite by design: those are living frameworks, kept current.
Where a later piece revisits an earlier one, both say so, and the earlier one is marked below. Pieces that turn on a pending matter carry that matter’s current posture alongside the original analysis — the argument stays frozen at its date, the docket does not.
July 2026
4 piecesJul 2026
Two Years In: The Reform's Numbers Have Arrived, and Its Provisions Are Still Untested
June 19, 2026 marked two years since AB 2288 and SB 92 took effect. The filing data now shows the first sustained decline; the LWDA's first-ever PAGA regulations are through their public hearing; and no published appellate decision has yet construed a single reform provision. Each of those facts changes how the next PAGA notice should be handled.
Tracking LWDA Proposed RegulationsTracking Reform Appellate Authority
Jul 2026
The Leeper Holding Pattern: Running a Defense While Headless PAGA Waits for Fall
Leeper v. Shipt is fully briefed, two companion cases are held behind it, and the court's published calendar makes fall 2026 the earliest window for a decision. What defense counsel does during the wait will determine what the decision is worth when it arrives.
Awaiting Leeper v. Shipt, Inc.
Jul 2026
Martinez v. Sierra Lifestar: Certification Denials Don't Survive a Formulaic Pay Error
The Court of Appeal reversed a class certification denial in a regular-rate case, holding the typicality analysis legally erroneous. The lesson runs in both directions: a payroll-configuration error is classwide by nature, and the defense that treats damage variation as a typicality shield is building on sand.
Jul 2026
Doss v. Tesla: When the FAA's Own Exemption Sends the Whole Case Back to Court
A Tesla yard hostler who moved trailers on factory grounds was held a transportation worker exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act — and with the FAA out, Labor Code section 229 kept the wage claims and the representative PAGA action in court. Arbitration programs built without a section 1 audit are carrying risk their drafters never priced.
Tracking Hohenshelt Progeny
March 2026
2 piecesMar 2026
Leeper v. Shipt: What the Grant of Review Means for Headless PAGA Claims
The California Supreme Court's grant of review puts the viability of 'headless' PAGA claims squarely at issue. The answer will determine whether Viking River's arbitration framework can be circumvented through strategic claim abandonment.
Revisited by a later pieceAwaiting Leeper v. Shipt, Inc.
Mar 2026
The Hohenshelt Practical Playbook: What to Do When You've Already Lost Arbitration Rights
Hohenshelt killed strict-liability forfeiture for late arbitration fee payments. But the decision does more than save future cases — it may rescue arbitration rights that were already declared forfeited.
Tracking Hohenshelt Progeny
February 2026
2 piecesFeb 2026
Twenty Months In: Are the 2024 PAGA Penalty Caps Actually Being Applied?
AB 2288 and SB 92 created the most significant shift in PAGA defense strategy since 2004. But twenty months after enactment, no published appellate decision has interpreted the reform provisions. What do we know about how they are working in practice?
Revisited by a later pieceTracking Reform Appellate Authority
Feb 2026
The Commission Forfeiture Theory Nobody's Raising — and Why Every Dealership Should Be Worried
Why a theory this strong stays out of complaints, and what a dealership should do before a plaintiff's firm finally reads Sciborski closely. The pay-plan language, the exposure arithmetic, and the fix that closes it.