Ending the legislative year with a bang!

All five CAOC-sponsored bills are signed into law by Newsom

2025 November

Excellent news from Sacramento: all five CAOC-sponsored bills were signed by Governor Newsom. 

AB 251 (Kalra) gives judges the discretion to lower the burden of proof in physical elder-abuse cases involving spoliation. Specifically, AB 251 gives a judge discretion to apply the preponderance of the evidence standard as the burden of proof if the court finds intentional destruction of evidence by a defendant skilled nursing facility, residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE) or adult community care facility. The civil justice system is often the only avenue to hold nursing facility operators directly accountable for elder abuse and to ensure these facilities are safer for all. AB 251 will deter these facilities from concealing and destroying key evidence that may otherwise prove damages to the victims. California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform co-sponsored the bill.

SB 37 (Umberg) prohibits lawyers from including deceptive information in their advertisements, including billboards and online displays, about their experiences or trial records and from touting awards that they paid to receive. The legislation also creates enforcement ability for consumers to sue so-called cappers (individuals who are illegally paid by lawyers or law firms to steer clients their way) and lead generators that are not following the State Bar’s certification process. Updating the advertising definitions and adding prohibitions paired with authorizing consumer enforcement against unethical attorney advertising is a necessary step to protect consumers, supplement state regulatory efforts, deter misconduct, empower victims, and foster a fair legal marketplace. By giving individuals the ability to hold unethical attorneys accountable, the legal profession can restore public trust and ensure that consumers receive honest and competent representation.

AB 931 (Kalra) protects Californians in two crucial ways: (1) It creates a regulatory framework for consumer protection in the non-recourse legal advances space, and 2) it prohibits non-lawyers from sharing legal fees with lawyers, preserving attorney independence from corporate and investor influence. Under AB 931, attorneys cannot refer consumers to businesses where they (or their family members) have a financial interest. This ban also blocks indirect referral schemes or hidden kickbacks. AB 931 further clarifies that California attorneys and law firms can’t share legal fees with Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) – out-of-state entities that allow non-lawyers to own or manage legal service providers, which could compromise ethical standards.

SB 82 (Umberg) ensures that consumer arbitration agreements do not stretch beyond the goods or services they initially cover. This bill followed Disney’s controversial attempt to force a widower to arbitrate claims that his wife negligently died of a fatal allergic reaction at a company property in 2023 solely because he had signed an arbitration agreement for his Disney+ trial subscription years prior. SB 82 ensures that contract terms between businesses and consumers apply only to the specific product or service covered by the agreement at the time of signing. The bill was co-sponsored by Consumer Federation of California and Consumer Watchdog.

SB 645 (Umberg) addresses the AB 3070 January 1, 2026, sunrise then-Senator (now California Secretary of State) Dr. Weber’s criminal peremptory challenge bill to civil cases by creating categories of cases that will shift to the new procedures. Co-sponsored by the California Defense Counsel, SB 645 strikes the right balance by expanding the landmark protections for jurors in AB 3070 to civil rights, employment, and other similar case types while preserving the Batson-Wheeler process for the appropriate civil cases.