New California Laws Help Animals, Fire Victims, Immigrants

Speaker 1: 00:00 Hundreds of new laws will take effect in California in 2020 from measures dealing with health insurance to changes in how workers in the so-called gig economy are classified. Joining us to talk about some of them is legal analyst Dan Eaton. Dan, welcome. Thank you Jay. Good to be with you. So let's start with health insurance. Senate bill 78 mandates attacks on Californians who refuse to buy health insurance, right? Well, that's right. I mean, uh, you'll recall that, uh, Congress did away with the individual mandate of the affordable care act properly known as Obamacare and uh, the state of California just imposed reimpose the individual healthcare mandate, uh, because it's necessary, you're according to the legislature to protect the overall health and welfare of this stage resident and ensure that there is a stable and well-functioning health insurance market in this state and the fight over whether parents should be required to have their children vaccinated at resulted in legislation. Speaker 1: 00:58 Two bills out of the state Senate will change how doctors deal with the issues of a vaccine exemptions. Understand Jade did a few years ago, the personal belief exemption was eliminated in California, which meant that the only assumption that parents could get was a medical exemption of what these new laws would do is to standardize the medical exemption form. Because the proponent found in the state found that there was a sharp increase in medical exemptions in the aftermath of the elimination of the personal belief exemption. So this would essentially require a immunization absent, uh, medical exemptions that are on a standardized form. And of course, one of the biggest stories statewide is California's housing crisis. Millions of Californians will have new safeguards against large rent increases, right? Well, that's right. I mean, what a AB 14, 82 would do is it would cap our rent increases statewide at 5% effective January 1st. Speaker 1: 02:01 And this doesn't apply to a housing stock that was built within the last of 15 years, but understand that that's a rolling of 15 years. So in other words, the capital apply, uh, to a homes built in 2006, uh, apartment buildings, uh, built in 2006. Uh, the cap would apply in 2021 and uh, it would be rolling and so forth. So ultimately this is going to cap rent increases at five per cent a year, uh, retroactive to the rent that was in effect on March 15th, 2019. Understand that the bill also imposes the measure also imposes adjust just cause our requirement for eviction. San Diego assembly woman Lorena Gonzalez was the driving force behind the assembly bill five, which deals with how workers in so-called gig economy are classified. And this one has been pretty controversial. It has Jayden, I've written actually quite a lot about it in my log. Speaker 1: 02:59 More column in the San Diego union Tribune. Understand that what AB five did was it codified the ABC test of the California Supreme court's landmark dynamics ruling concerning, uh, who can be classified as an independent contractor as opposed to an employee. The ABC test says that you're can't be classified as an independent contractor excused from the requirements of an employee unless you meet all three parts of this test. A, the hiring entity does not control or direct the worker and performing the work. Uh, in the manner normally exercise for employees. B, the work performed. It's outside the usual course of the hiring entities business out as it's not integral to the hiring entities business and C, but workers customarily engaged in an independently established trade occupation or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed. Uh, this, uh, low diner is Fletcher's, uh, measure. Also, uh, would authorize city attorneys, uh, to go after noncompliant businesses and understand it doesn't just apply to a gig economy, uh, hiring entities. Speaker 1: 04:00 It would go beyond that. And it'll be interesting to see how a city attorneys and private attorneys alike, uh, apply this law and how the, uh, courts apply the various exceptions. It will be interesting to watch, uh, how the legislature in the coming term, uh, it fixes some of the problems that have been identified, uh, by this measure. Another locally generated measure from a assembly woman, Shirley Weber, and this one restricts law enforcement officer's use of deadly force only when it's necessary in defense of human life. Tell me about that. That's exactly right. This is AB three 92 and it's to reduce the extent to which officers use deadly force so that it's not just if it's reasonable, if there are reasonable alternatives, the officer should use them and deescalate the situation. Understand that a dr Webber who used to teach at San Diego state was named San Diego San Diego for a year by the San Diego union Tribune. Speaker 1: 04:57 As a result of her work on this measure, and lots of cities in California had their own minimum wage laws, but a new state mandate will have it rising to $13 an hour from most workers. Is that right? That's right. The bottom line is that this is part of a longstanding measure that increases the minimum wage incrementally. Ultimately, the minimum wage will be increased to $15 an hour giving a raise to a number of workers, uh, in an era where there is very, very low unemployment. I've been speaking with legal analyst, Dan Eaton. Dan, thanks so much for joining us. Sure. Happy new year, Jay. Happy new year.