Ourfalian & Ourfalian Attorneys At Law

DMV Licenses for drivers 70 and older that expire March through December 2020 now valid until 2021DMV Licenses for drivers 70 and older that expire March through December 2020 now valid until 2021

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. Cicero Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our compatriots in Armenia and Artsakh are waging an existential war against a genocidal Turkey and Azerbaijan tandem. We hereby express our solidarity with our compatriots and heroic Army and express our sorrow to the families of the fallen heroes. We call upon all to reach out to their elected representatives, the White House and the media to expose this evil duo and restrain their genocidal appetites! Donate through ArmeniaFund.org/donate to help with the humanitarian needs of the people who have suffered due this dastardly attack on our homeland Ourfalian & Ourfalian

California Considers Allowing Law Graduates To Skip Test Due To COVID-19. It’s a ticket to a potentially lucrative career as a lawyer and a grueling, dreaded rite of passage that can defeat even the most promising young legal mind. - Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, there’s a chance thousands of recent law school graduates could become lawyers in California without having to take the bar exam....Continue reading

Supreme Court Prohibits Mobile Phone Robocalls To Collect Federal Debt. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a 2015 law allowing federal debt collectors to make robocalls violates the Constitution. That's because those debt collectors were allowed to make automated calls while other groups weren't given the same treatment. - Congress generally isn't allowed to favor certain speech over others, but that's precisely what Congress did, wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh for the si...Continue reading

Supreme Court Prohibits Mobile Phone Robocalls To Collect Federal Debt. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a 2015 law allowing federal debt collectors to make robocalls violates the Constitution. That's because those debt collectors were allowed to make automated calls while other groups weren't given the same treatment. - Congress generally isn't allowed to favor certain speech over others, but that's precisely what Congress did, wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh for the si...Continue reading

For over 40 years Ourfalian & Ourfalian have successfully represented thousands of individuals and small businesses throughout Southern California.

PERSONAL INJURY/CIVIL LITIGATION Ourfalian & Ourfalian specializes in a wide variety of Personal Injury and Civil Litigation, including Auto Accidents, Premises Liability, Products Liability and Medical Malpractice actions. The firm has had a highly distinguished record of representing clients from inception to litigation to judgment, simple as well as complex cases. - A highly skilled legal team with extensive experience assures the best possible outcome for the firm's c...lientele. - Ourfalian & Ourfalian has developed an extensive network of experts in many fields to assist in its efforts. The firm is held in the highest esteem among its peers and the legal profession in general. See more

U.S. Supreme Court Eases Trademark Rules For Online Companies. A generic word combined with ".com can create a federally protectable trademark, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In a case that was the subject of the high court’s first-ever remote oral argument, the Supreme Court affirmed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that the combination of the generic word Booking with the generic top-level d...omain ".com could receive federal trademark protection even if Booking alone could not. - The decision axed the PTO’s bright-line rule against registering a generic word plus top-level domain combinations, and it opens the door for the owners of others to apply for trademarks. - Several trademark attorneys agreed with the ruling, including the justices’ stance on the importance of consumer perception in trademark law. - I think that the court totally got it right. I think that the majority sort of hit the nail on the head when it said because Booking.com is not a generic name to consumers, it’s not generic, trademark attorney Fara Sunderji of Dorsey & Whitney LLP said. It’s all about consumer perception. It’s sort of a hallmark of this case, and a hallmark of trademark law. - Attorneys also said the ruling will encourage litigation. In a manner typical of the Supreme Court, the ruling stated the rule but not how to implement it, trademark attorney Tyler J. TJ Mantooth of Hall Estill said. - If I have an applicant, I would like to be able to tell them, ‘This is what we need, this is the evidence we need to prove this is not generic.’ It’s relatively daunting for a practitioner like myself to advise clients until this gets sorted out through the trademark office, Mantooth said. - Mantooth said that havoc would extend to courts as entities wield costly litigation as leverage. While the Supreme Court said protection for marks like Booking.com may be narrow, companies could still end up throwing around lawsuits because evaluating domain marks’ validity and similarity would be fact-heavy questions difficult to resolve before trial, he said. - Trademark attorney of J. Kevin Fee of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP agreed. - Whenever the court rejects ‘per se’ rules and adopts fact-dependent analysis, it always invites litigation, Fee said. - - The case is U.S. Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., U.S., No. 19-46, 6/30/20. - Per Bloomberg Law See more

CA Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) Update As an employer in California, you should be aware of the new Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) which creates a new ABC test to determine whether a worker in California is classified as an employee or as an independent contractor under the California Labor Code. AB 5 goes into effect on July 1, 2020 and pertains to policies issued on or after July 1, 2020, as well as policies in force as of July 1, 2020. AB 5 is not based on policy effective date.... - If you have 1099 subcontractors, you should familiarize yourself with the AB 5 requirements to help mitigate potential impacts to your business and your workers’ compensation policy and premiums. - According to the ABC test, a worker must meet all the following conditions to be considered an independent contractor: - A: The individual is free from control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact. - B: The individual performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business. - C: The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed. - For your reference, here is a link to ADP’s Eye on Washington you may find helpful. You may also find California’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency site helpful, which includes an FAQ section on AB 5. - Please Note: To avoid any unexpected changes to your workers’ compensation coverage, it is important you make certain all payroll processed as of July 1, 2020 for all California employees meets the requirements defined by the ABC test. - Please reach out to your licensed agent at 800.524.7024 should you have any questions. - Per Automatic Data Processing Insurance Agency, Inc.

California To Escalate Legal Battle With Gig Companies Over Worker Classification. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra plans to file a preliminary injunction in his classification fight with Uber and Lyft, escalating a battle with major technology companies, based on a memo sent Wednesday morning from his office. - Becerra and the attorneys of major cities filed a lawsuit earlier this year to compel gig tech companies to treat their drivers as employees, not indepe...ndent contractors, per a newly operative California law that creates a statewide labor standard tilted more toward classifying workers as employees who must receive wage and benefit guarantees. - The California Department of Justice did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation, but a department attorney notified parties to the lawsuit of the state's intent to seek the preliminary injunction, according to an email obtained by POLITICO. Becerra's office intends to file the preliminary injunction request Thursday and seeks a July 23 hearing date. App-based gig work companies are battling the new law, CA AB5 (19R), arguing it would decimate their business models and deprive workers of flexible income. The companies have argued the law does not apply to their workers, which prompted the Becerra lawsuit. - If granted, a preliminary injunction could force the gig companies to comply with the law. - Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart have committed more than $110 million toward passing a ballot initiative that would let their workers remain independent contractors. The companies are looking to the electorate after they were unable to sway the Legislature, and the courts are increasingly applying pressure. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin challenged DoorDash in court last week for illegally misclassifying its delivery drivers, another volley in a growing barrage of legal challenges to gig companies in California. Stacey Wells, a spokesperson for the industry’s ballot initiative, blasted Becerra’s latest move by characterizing it as yet another malicious legal action against drivers that underscores exactly why we’re pursuing the ballot measure. - It is baffling that anyone would seek to end this critical work, threatening 900,000 jobs, especially now, she said in a statement. - Similarly, Uber previewed its likely message to voters in a statement assailing Becerra's actions. "When over 3 million Californians are without a job, our elected leaders should be focused on creating work, not trying to shut down an entire industry," the company said. - Per Politico See more

Bayer To Pay More Than $10 Billion To Resolve Cancer Lawsuits Over Weedkiller Roundup. Bayer will pay more than $10 billion to end thousands of lawsuits filed over its Roundup weed killer, the company announced Wednesday. The settlement also resolves many other cases filed against Bayer over dicamba herbicide and water contaminated with toxic PCBs. - Roundup's active ingredient is glyphosate, which many plaintiffs blame for causing them to develop cancer. It is produced b...Continue reading

In Landmark Ruling, Supreme Court Bars Discrimination Against LGBT Workers. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a watershed victory for LGBT rights and a defeat for President Donald Trump’s administration by ruling that a longstanding federal law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees. - The landmark 6-3 ruling represented the biggest moment for LGBT rights in the United States since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nat...ionwide in 2015. Two conservative justices joined the court’s four liberals in the decision: Neil Gorsuch, a 2017 Trump appointee who wrote the ruling, and Chief Justice John Roberts. - The justices decided that gay and transgender people are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex as well as race, color, national origin and religion. - Workplace bias against gay and transgender employees had remained legal in much of the country, with 28 U.S. states lacking comprehensive measures against employment discrimination. The ruling - in two gay rights cases from Georgia and New York and a transgender rights case from Michigan - recognizes new worker protections in federal law. - The legal fight focused on the definition of sex in Title VII. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that discriminating against gay and transgender workers was inherently based on their sex and consequently was illegal. - Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump called the ruling very powerful and said, They’ve ruled and we live with their decision. Supported by evangelical Christian voters, Trump has taken actions that have undermined gay and transgender rights since taking office in 2017. - LGBT activists and the only surviving plaintiff in the litigation lauded the ruling. - I truly believe I went into shock this morning, said Gerald Bostock, who brought the Georgia case after losing his job as a county government child welfare services coordinator months after joining the local gay-friendly Hotlanta Softball League. - I’m proud to have taken part in this process in getting us to this historic moment, Bostock added. - The ruling does not resolve other legal issues on LGBT rights including whether separate federal laws that bar sex discrimination should also be interpreted as covering sexual orientation and gender identity. - Americans must be able to rely on what the law says, and it is disappointing that a majority of the justices were unwilling to affirm that commonsense principle, said John Bursch, a lawyer with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group that represented the employer in the Michigan case. - Trump’s administration joined the employers in arguing that Congress did not intend for Title VII to protect gay and transgender people when it passed the law. Gorsuch conceded that point but said what mattered was the law’s text. - Per Reuters See more

California Makes It Easier To Resolve Traffic & Non-Traffic Infraction Matters. As part of the Court’s continuing efforts to help people resolve their Traffic and Non-Traffic Infraction matters, roughly 256,000 information packets are being mailed to individuals with Traffic and Non-Traffic Infraction citation compliance dates to help them resolve their cases. The Court offers many options for resolving these citations online without having to come to court, a process tha...t will now require a reservation which must be made in advance in order to speak with a clerk at a courthouse. - The compliance date is the date by which a person must respond to the citation or complete an action such as: the ‘appear by’ date provided on the citation, traffic school completion date and payment due date. It does NOT include anyone who has a scheduled court hearing date with a judicial officer. - The packets are being sent so that people with Traffic and Non-Traffic Infraction citations will have detailed information and understand the options they have to resolve their cases without having to come to court. - The packets contain the following documents: * READ ME FIRST! Advisement in English and Spanish which explains that an appointment to meet with a clerk must be scheduled in advance and provides Clerk’s Office Call Center numbers; - * FAQs in English and Spanish which provide answers to common questions regarding Traffic and Non-Traffic Infraction citations; - * Request for Trial by Declaration Form - used to contest a ticket in writing without coming to court*; - * Instructions for Trial by Declaration which explain the process and how to file; - * An Ability to Pay Petition - used when the court has decided that you owe the fine; - * Agreement to Pay Form - used when an individual wants to resolve the citation without coming to court and is unable to pay the full amount of the citation*. Submit an Ability to Pay Petition along with the Agreement to Pay Form. - Traffic and Non-Traffic infraction appearances scheduled between March 17 and June 22, 2020, have been rescheduled and notifications of new court dates have been sent. All due dates for tickets with a date to appear have been extended 90 days. - When the Clerk’s Office opens on June 15 for the first time since closing on March 23, the public will be offered convenient telephonic and online options to conduct court business. As part of the effort to enforce social distancing, it will be required to set an appointment in advance to receive in-person services for Traffic and Non-Traffic citations. (Note, traffic trials are not conducted telephonically or online at this time.) - Please visit the Court’s Traffic webpage or call one of the Call Centers below for more information and assistance. - Per LASC Presiding Judge See more

For over 35 years Ourfalian & Ourfalian has successfully represented thousands of individuals and small businesses throughout Southern California.

Chanel, Revlon, L'Oreal Pivot Away From Talc As U.S. Cancer Lawsuits & Consumer Concerns Mount. Chanel, Revlon and L’Oreal, three of the biggest brands in cosmetics, are quietly moving away from using talc in some products as U.S. cancer lawsuits and consumer concerns mount. Luxury beauty company Chanel has removed talc from a loose face powder and dropped a talc body powder because of negative perceptions around the mineral, court documents reviewed by Reuters show....Continue reading

Los Angeles Protesters Arrested For Violating Curfew Won't Be Charged. Thousands of protesters who have been arrested in Los Angeles for violating curfew or failing to disperse will not be prosecuted, county and city officials announced Monday. - Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer explained they will take a non-punitive approach to resolving cases in which people who have taken to the streets protesting police brutal...Continue reading