On October 27, 2020, the Judge ruled in favor of the Defendant on summary judgment about whether the County was an employer of the providers. Summary judgment is a pre-trial decision based on the undisputed facts of a case. In this ruling, the Judge ruled that the county is not an employer for IHSS providers. We argued that the County should be held liable as a joint employer of providers, but the Court decided that under the current structure of the program the County’s role is too limited. Because of this ruling we will no longer be going to trail in December.
We are disappointed this ruling was not in our favor, and have filed an appeal of this decision to the Ninth Circuit. This does mean, however, that the timeline of the case will be extended. We cannot say exactly how long the case will continue, but generally appeals take about 2 years.
In addition to challenging the judge’s ruling on employer status, we will also be appealing decisions from the trial court that held that the County could assert a good faith defense, and that the County did not willfully violate the Fair Labor Standards Act. How the Ninth Circuit rules on these issues will impact whether we can recover liquidated damages, and what statute of limitations applies to the case.