Glenn A. Danas

Everything Danas has worked toward in the past few years has been with the goal of chipping away at Concepcion, the seminal pro-employer U.S. Supreme Court ruling that compelled workers to arbitration rather than class actions.

“I don’t think anything has changed anything more than Concepcion in past 10 or 20 years,” said Danas, who handles appeals and briefs.

Danas cited a recent study by The Employee Rights Advocacy Institute for Law & Policy that said between 50 and 80 percent of companies have enforced arbitration clauses since 2010.

“Concepcion was just massively destructive of employee rights,” said Danas.

But with a couple major employee-side rulings, Danas and his firm at Capstone Law are trying to level the playing field. His notable cases include McGill v. Citibank, in which the California Supreme Court agreed that injunctive relief may not be barred by arbitration agreements. In Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, the state’s high court ruled that Private Attorneys General Act claims, in which an aggrieved party seeks civil penalties for a class of claimants, don’t have to be waived. McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal.5th 945 (2017) and Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, 59 Cal. 4th 348 (2014).

“PAGA has taken on a huge importance in California state litigation since class actions have been made difficult in various ways,” said Danas.

Now the fight turns to what the standing requirements are going to be under PAGA. Does a plaintiff have to personally suffer violations in order to seek civil penalties on behalf of non-party aggrieved employees?

Danas is currently briefing the issue for reconsideration at the trial court. Stewart v. Hat World, CIV533617 (San Mateo Super. Ct., filed April 30, 2015).

“I think that is the next big hurdle, the next big juicy appellate issue,” said Danas, who will likely file a writ petition soon.

In a different but very important PAGA issue, a trial court will decide whether a PAGA case can be limited at trial by only requiring a defendant to produce a subset of employment records. The case, Lopes v. Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc., RG08380189 (Alameda Super. Ct., filed April 4, 2008), is likely to be granted a writ petition after being subjected to a Palma notice, which lets parties know the court is considering granting the writ.

Danas, who said his firm has grown to be the largest California class action firm, said it is important to keep up with all the micro changes in labor and employment law.

“In this area the law is constantly changing and unlike other practice areas it is critically important to stay on top of developments with different divisions and districts of the court of appeal,” said Danas.

— Justin Kloczko