Keeping you up-to-date on our work to increase your salary, improve and protect your benefits, and aggressively represent your professional interests in every forum where they are at stake.
CASE BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATE
Another Week, Another CASE Win Against Wasteful Outsourcing. CASE successfully challenged another legal outsourcing contract, this time against Caltrans. Caltrans attempted to outsource e-discovery management tasks in the Antlers Bridge litigation pending in Shasta County. Caltrans contracted with System One Holdings, dba Cimplifi, to manage more than 3 million documents related to an upcoming arbitration.
However, SPB found that Caltrans failed to carry its burden to show why no civil service employee could perform the work, and why the software expertise of Cimplifi was the only method of handling the e-discovery tasks. Shockingly, Caltrans attempted to justify its illegal outsourcing by suggesting that Caltrans’ Legal Division was incompetent. The State Personnel Board would have none of it, as they noted:
- “Caltrans’s response troublingly seems to imply that its Legal Division is simply incapable of conducting eDiscovery in compliance with discovery rules, managing electronic documents for use in depositions, or preparing electronic documents for presentation as evidence in arbitrations, and thus is not capable of adequately representing Caltrans in legal actions against it.”
SPB rejected Caltrans’ arguments and disapproved the contract, and directed Caltrans to pursue legal avenues, like hiring more qualified attorneys if necessary, or utilizing the expertise of other departments, including the Attorney General’s Office.
CASE still has other challenges pending at SPB against various departments and will continue the fight against the outsourcing of CASE Members’ jobs. Have you seen outsourcing at your department? Let us know via email: outsidelegalcounsel@calattorneys.org.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
News of Interest to Unit 2 Legal Professionals
- Juul Reaches $462 Million Settlement With New York, California and Other States – The New York Times
- State of California goes after Huntington Beach following housing plan rejection – Los Angeles Times/Daily Pilot
- Ex-San Diego Padres player seeks workers’ compensation for cumulative injury – HRD
BETTER BUILD YOUR MOU
MOU Suggestion Box. While we are still two years away from the next round of bargaining, it’s never too soon to collect ideas for future negotiations. To that end, we have created the MOU Suggestion Box, a place for members – and ONLY members – to contribute ideas for new or improved benefits and MOU terms at any time. We are, of course, well aware of the need for the Governor to address continuing salary lags (both within the unit and between state service and local government jobs), so we are hoping to collect your ideas on non-salary MOU items. To complete a suggestion card, click here. The password is membersmatter25.
REMINDERS
Become a CASE Local Representative. In addition to your all-volunteer CASE Board of Directors, CASE Members benefit from another corps of dedicated volunteers – our Local Representatives. Local Reps are the eyes and ears of CASE in the workplace and help us identify and extinguish small brush fires before they become raging infernos. Local Reps are also the first friendly face in the workplace (virtual or in-person) welcoming newly hired Attorneys, ALJs, Deputy Labor Commissioners, and Graduate Legal Assistants to state service and to CASE. Our 2023 Annual Local Rep training will be held Friday, April 21 from 12-3pm online. To learn more and to apply, visit the CASE website.
CASE Public Service Scholars Award. With college acceptance season nearly upon us, the Board is pleased to announce the first annual CASE Public Service Scholars Award, available exclusively to CASE Members and their dependents bound for college, law school, or graduate school. Applications will be accepted from March 1 through May 1. Click here for more information and to apply.