Can Retailers Keep Employees’ Contact Information Private?

A client alert written by managing partner Cheryl Orr, senior attorney Jaime Walter, and associates Ramon Miyar and Irene Rizzi was republished as an article in Chain Store Age and California Retailers Association's Golden State Report. “Can Retailers Keep Employees’ Contact Information Private?” discusses the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Williams v. Superior Court (Marshalls of CA, LLC) and its impact on retail employers.

The Williams decision held that there is nothing unique about claims filed under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) that would justify restricting the scope of discovery under California law. The court reversed a decision of the California Court of Appeal that would have prohibited PAGA plaintiffs from obtaining the contact information of other potentially aggrieved employees beyond the discrete location at which they worked.

The authors note that though “the decision deprives employers of the ability to limit the scope of discovery to some extent, the holding of Williams is actually quite narrow and should not be read as a carte blanche invitation to propound unlimited statewide discovery without any preliminary showing of good cause.”

Read “Can Retailers Keep Employees’ Contact Information Private?”

Read the team’s full alert – “California Supreme Court Ruling on Right to Statewide Discovery in PAGA Actions Is Not as Bad for Employers as It Looks.”