Do PAGA and ADA empower serial suers to drain business revenue?

California’s “anti-employer agenda” threatened fiscal stability long before COVID-19 emerged, says entrepreneur–consultant Mike Vallante. Vallante avers that the laws Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) and Californian Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) employ nebulous language, which encourages costly, ridiculous-reasoned lawsuits against businesses. Since 75% of plaintiffs’ victory funds go straight to the state, PAGA and ADA lawsuits aren’t helping real victims and are crippling employers over trifles like “website accessibility.”

It’s quite the feat for America’s largest economy—the 5th largest in the world—to rank as the worst legal jurisdiction in the country, but California has done just that. In fact, the Golden State is the American Tort Reform Foundation’s (ATRF) worst Judicial Hellhole this year. What’s worse, some of the damage could be irreversible.

For starters, our Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), is now infamously known as the “Sue Your Boss Law.” This single law has become employers’ worst nightmare and a cash cow for both the state and trial attorneys looking to score an easy payday.

Any employee can sue their employer not only on behalf of themselves, but also on behalf of other employees and the entire State of California. On top of that, our state’s judicial malfeasance has allowed these lawsuits to cover multiple jurisdictions at once, ballooning potential damages.

These lawsuits leverage their vague scope to sue small businesses over issues as small as typos on a paystub. Whether these cases have merit or not is almost irrelevant to many trial lawyers, who know they can score easy wins on settlements from businesses who can’t afford to go to court. Worst of all, even if a plaintiff wins, the State of California gets a full 75 percent of the money, while attorneys leave with a third of the remaining settlement money. So even legitimate victims get pennies on the dollar of what they are owed.

This article originally appeared in the California Globe. Read the whole thing here.

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