About the Scorecard
The mission of Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) is
to confront legislation and laws that create unfair litigation
burdens on California businesses, employees, and communities. A
balanced civil justice system benefits all Californians.
CJAC’s Balance Scorecard shows how favorably state legislators
rank when it comes to promoting fairness and balance in our civil
justice system. Rankings are based upon legislators’ votes and
efforts on key bills impacting civil justice.
Download the full scorecard here: 2021 CJAC Balance Scorecard
2021 Balance Scorecard Rankings
Methodology
- CJAC counted all votes taken on the floor, in policy
committees, and final votes in appropriation committees for key
bills for which we had a support or oppose position at the time
of the vote. We divided the number of favorable votes on key CJAC
bills by the number of opportunities to vote. “Favorable” is
defined as a) supporting a bill CJAC supports; or b) voting
against/abstaining from voting on a bill CJAC opposes.
- CJAC used the vote record at www.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
and counted NVR or “no vote recorded” as an abstention, although
in some cases it may reflect absences.
- In addition to votes, CJAC assigned extra weight to proactive
favorable and unfavorable efforts by legislators (e.g., authored
bill, floor speech) on Triple Threat (T3) bills or other bills
containing private rights of action (PRAs).
Policy Basis for Position on Key Bills
CJAC supports legislation that promotes balance in our civil
justice system by providing protections against abuse and
clarifications and other changes that remove unreasonable
litigation burdens.
- CJAC opposes changes to our civil liability system that are
unfair or create unwarranted liability expansions, promote
frivolous litigation, or otherwise create imbalance.
- CJAC generally opposes creation of new PRAs, which allow
private lawsuits under civil laws normally enforced by
government, as they incentivize profit-seeking suits that
primarily benefit plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Key 2021 Bills Used for the Scorecard
CIVIL LIABILITY
AB 35 (Chau) OPPOSE. Imposes civil liability on social media
platforms for spread of misinformation online.
AB 371 (Jones-Sawyer) OPPOSE. Makes mobility device owners
liable for user negligence. (PRA)
AB 1218 (McCarty) OPPOSE. Imposes onerous penalties on auto
makers.
AB 1371 (Friedman) OPPOSE. Creates unreasonable regulations
and penalties for use of bubble wrap.
SB 447 (Laird) OPPOSE T3.* Extends pain and suffering damages
to survivor actions.
SB 605 (Eggman) OPPOSE. Makes medical device manufacturers
liable for the defects of aftermarket repairs.
UNFAIR COMPETITION
AB 286 (Gonzalez) OPPOSE. Expands Unfair Competition Law and
imposes liability on food delivery platforms.
CONTRACTS
AB 424 (Stone) OPPOSE T3. Creates lender liability for
enforcing valid student loan contracts. (PRA)
SB 331 (Leyva) OPPOSE. Prohibits confidential settlements for
sexual discrimination or harassment claims.
LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
AB 95 (Low) OPPOSE T3. Mandates 10 days employee bereavement
leave and creates PRA. (PRA)
AB 701 (Gonzalez) OPPOSE T3. Imposes onerous regulations on
warehouse distribution centers. (PRA)
AB 1074 (Gonzalez) OPPOSE. Creates penalties for failure to
rehire janitorial workers displaced due to COVID and new
basis for PAGA suit. (PRA)
SB 62 (Durazo) OPPOSE. Creates employer liability for paying
garment workers per piece and expands bases to sue under PAGA.
(PRA)
SB 606 (Gonzalez) OPPOSE T3. Expands CalOSHA authority to
issue enterprise citations and penalties.
PRIVACY
AB 814 (Levine) OPPOSE T3. Creates unwarranted regulation,
liability for contact tracing data use. (PRA)
AB 1252 (Chau) OPPOSE. Deems general businesses info
collected online to be confidential medical info.
AB 1262 (Cunningham) OPPOSE. Creates unreasonable regulations
and liability for speaker device makers.
STATE BAR
SB 211 (Umberg) SUPPORT. Holds State Bar accountable for
failure to resolve disciplinary cases.
*Later moved to no position following amendments.
