On February 17th, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court issued the opinion in Cothron v White Castle Systems, ruling that the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) defines violations as each time a private entity scans or transmits data that violates BIPA. With the clarity from the Illinois Supreme Court that BIPA violations occur each time biometric information is collected without consent or approval, the BIPA damages of $1000 ($5000 if “willful”) occur with each act.

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP announces the launch of a mediation practice at the firm.  Joshua Konecky, who has been with the firm since 2004, is leading the practice and serving as the neutral for the mediations.  Josh has spent over twenty-five years litigating and managing complex civil litigation in the state and federal courts in California and across the country.  He has extensive experience in employment law, including wage and hour class actions, and has facilitated settlements in a variety of other subject areas.

A Sacramento County Superior Court judge has temporarily halted AB 257, after a restaurant group sued the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the director of the California Department of Industrial Relations.  The law, which sets new rules on wages and labor standards in the fast-food industry, was set to be enacted on January 1st, 2023.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that during fiscal year 2022 they awarded 103 awards a total of $229 million.  Since 2012 the program has awarded $1.3 billion to 328 whistleblowers. The SEC reported the over one billion dollars in awards are a result of $6.3 billion in monetary sanctions. The SEC implemented Whistleblower Rule Amendments in December 2020 that created a new presumption those eligible for an award should receive the maximum 30% when the award would not exceed $5 million.  The SEC reported that during fiscal year 2020, over 90% of the awards were able to use this new maximum percentage rule.

Major pharmaceutical antitrust news for December 2022, as of January 1st, 2023.

On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed rule banning non-compete agreements, as well as the settlements it reached with companies for alleged abuse of non-compete agreements. The FTC listed several main goals of their rule proposal, including raising wages for lower and middle-income workers who are increasingly seeing non-compete agreements added to more job types, and concerns over competition. 

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP, a national plaintiff side law firm, is pleased to announce the December 2022 promotion of two new additional partners. Matthew S. Weiler and Ori Edelstein join a growing partner tier at the firm.

Previously in March 2022, the firm announced their new Los Angeles office, its second in California and fifth nationwide. The firm also announced the addition of four new partners: Amy Eskin, Ryan Hicks, Nathan Piller and David Leimbach.

A 464-person class action accusing Segerdahl Corp. and Greatbanc Trust Co. of orchestrating a stock buyout that caused Segerdahl’s employee stock plan to lose millions of dollars can go to trial on most claims, a Chicago federal judge ruled.

The Segerdahl plan participants presented evidence that the defendants shopped the company to financial buyers and not to strategic buyers despite indications that a strategic buyer would have paid $55 million more, Judge Andrea R. Wood said in an opinion issued Friday. A trial is needed to determine whether the defendants fulfilled their fiduciary duties in orchestrating this transaction or whether they put other interests ahead of the stock plan, she said. Reproduced with permission. Published Dec. 16, 2022. Copyright 2022 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

The California Department of Industrial Relations maintains a database of wage theft claims presented to the office by employees against individuals and corporations. California reported 174 judgments in June 2022, after excluding duplicates. The total value of all judgments was $6,638,263. The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) reported 3080 wage claims in June of 2022.

“Restaurants and Other Eating Places” lead as an industry category with 136 claims. When including “Full Service Restaurants” with 61 additional claims, this group category had 197 wage claims in June.

The United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, reported a total of $164.6 million in back wages collected for workers during fiscal year 2021 from two categories:  $138,674,500 collected for unpaid overtime, and $25,932,824 collected for failure to pay minimum wage. Both the minimum wage violations and overtime violations are for companies and individuals who violated the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).