On July 5, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to Provident Savings Bank, FSB (“Provident”) in a class action suit brought against Provident by mortgage underwriters who sued for overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq. The Ninth Circuit agreed with plaintiffs that they had been misclassified by… Read More
With the recently alleged data breach of Equifax, the data security of financial institutions’ customer information is once again in the news. And once again, as with every data breach, a flurry of lawsuits has followed. The purpose of this article is to highlight one area of legal exposure with data breaches that applies only to financial institutions. Section 6285… Read More
“Resistance” is now the battle cry of the self-anointed defenders of consumer rights. But this is nothing new for the California Supreme Court, which for over 20 years has resisted the mandate in the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) to enforce arbitration agreements despite their collateral effect on class actions. Beginning with Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1 (1984), and reaching… Read More
Joel L. Halverson will be presenting "Leveling the Playing Field - Contract Negotiation Strategies for Design Professionals" on Thursday, February 15, 2018. We are currently experiencing a “seller’s market” in which owners and developers are finding it to be a challenge to find good help. Construction professionals can take advantage of this economic climate to secure important contractual protections we… Read More
David A. Ericksen will present a National webinar for American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) on Thursday, February 8, 2018. In the context of design and construction, coordination is a frequently cited concept and obligation, but it's seldom reduced to a clear and strategic definition or process. In reality, coordination is a complex sequence of communication via multiple stakeholders, with… Read More
Rebecca Saelao and Megan Kelly from Severson’s San Francisco office and Scott Hyman and Rochelle Smith from Severson’s Orange County office attended the American Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services Committee’s Winter Conference from January 6-9, 2018 in Park City, Utah. On January 7th, the Committee honored the passing of the Firm’s founder, James Werson, in 2017. Orange County Member-in-Charge, Scott… Read More
In this Article, Severson partners Rebecca Saelao and Scott Hyman discuss the effect of a class action plaintiff’s dismissal of claims or damages at the instruction of class counsel in order to conform their individual claim to the claims of the putative class and, purportedly, to better their chances for class certification. 2017 Claim Trimming Article Read More
Scott J. Hyman moderated a panel entitled “DEBT SERVICING AND COLLECTIONS IN THE MARKETPLACE LENDING & ALTERNATIVE FINANCING SPACE” at the Opal Marketplace Lending & Alternative Financing Summit, Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point, CA. Read More
Some design-professionals regularly secure limitations of liability to their own great benefit as well as that of their insurers. Some despair that it is impossible and almost never try to establish any limits or boundaries. The very good news is that limitations of liability are real and valuable. More importantly, there are many roads to limiting liability beyond a generic… Read More
