Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC office, was quoted in Courthouse News Services, in “Business Trade Group Wins First Battle Against California Labor Law,” by Bianca Bruno.

Following is an excerpt:

A state judge handed the California Business & Industrial Alliance its first win Thursday when he denied Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s attempt to dismiss a landmark case challenging a state law that empowers private citizens to file labor lawsuits.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson found in a tentative ruling he confirmed in court Thursday afternoon the California Business & Industrial Alliance has standing to bring claims on behalf of its business-owner members challenging the constitutionality of the Private Attorneys General Act, a state law that deputizes workers to bring claims against employers believed to be violating state labor laws.

“The controversy is sufficiently concrete and there is widespread public interest in these particular legal questions,” Wilson wrote.

The decision comes after the California Industrial & Business Alliance brought its lawsuit challenging PAGA last year claiming the law, as applied, has been abused by attorneys filing thousands of lawsuits on behalf of workers for their own private gain. …

“We’re very excited today. We see the light at the end of the tunnel to true PAGA reform,” California Business & Industrial Alliance founder Tom Manzo said in an interview following the court hearing. …

California Industrial & Business Alliance attorney Paul DeCamp with Epstein Becker Green in Washington, D.C., said when the legislature made the PAGA construction amendment “the problem they were trying to solve in the legislature was a problem created by legislation in the first place.”

“What about all the other industries that have the same concerns?” he added.

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