Do I Need a Written Contract?

You may have been in the situation where you had an agreement with someone else to do something. It may have been a family member, a friend, a customer, or a service provider. You or the other person didn’t want to go through the formal process of putting it in writing because you have a close relationship, don’t want to offend the other person, or don’t want them to think you don’t trust them. Then something goes wrong. You discuss it with the other person and now there’s a dispute as to what you both actually agreed to, or you never talked about what you two would do if x, y, z happens. Do you have a breach of contract claim? Maybe. In this scenario, your first and most difficult hurdle in prevailing in a breach of contract lawsuit is the lack of a written contract. There are multiple reasons why you would want a written contract. Here are a few: It gives clarity regarding each person’s rights and duties. The process of creating a contract forces the parties to … Continue reading

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Help! What Are My (Immediate) Defenses to a Federal Trade Secret Claim?

[Originally published without image as Help! What Are My (Immediate) Defenses to a Federal Trade Secret Claim?, by Lily Li and Andrea Paris, in Orange County Lawyer Magazine, September 2016, Vol. 58 No.9 on page 52.] The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA), signed into law by President Obama on May 11, 2016 creates a new federal cause of action for trade secret theft. Not only does the DTSA open the doors of the U.S. district courts to trade secret plaintiffs, it weaponizes complaints. Now, upon a showing of immediate and irreparable injury, plaintiffs in trade secret cases can request extraordinary relief: court-ordered seizure of the misappropriated trade secrets without notice to the defendant. This relief is above and beyond what is provided for by the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), the trade secret law adopted by most states, including California, and copies many of the civil seizure remedies previously available to copyright, trademark, and patent plaintiffs for infringing and counterfeit goods. This extraordinary relief comes with several safeguards. Defendants, faced with the prospect of a U.S. Marshal knocking on (or down) … Continue reading

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Pretext and Age Discrimination

A California Court of Appeal recently upheld an award of $16 million against Staples for age discrimination in a case called Nickel v. Staples. The majority of that award ($13 million to be exact) was in the form of punitive damages, which are meant to punish the defendant for its wrongful conduct. I found the court’s analysis in this case particularly interesting because many employers have a false sense of security that terminating older employees because they generally have higher salaries and cost the company more is a legitimate business decision. However, it’s evidence of that reasoning that justified the large punitive damages award. Workers Who Are Over 40 Years Old Protected from Discrimination Employers with over 5 employees are subject to the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s (“FEHA”) anti-discrimination laws. Government Code Section 12940(a) makes it a wrongful employment practice to discriminate against someone in the terms and conditions of their employment because they are over 40 years old. An easy rule of thumb for employers to remember is: whenever age the motivating factor for an employment decision, you … Continue reading

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