Lara

BACKGROUND

A.

Prior to the Private Attorneys General Act, the Labor Code was poorly enforced, largely due to ineffective remedies and limited enforcement capacity. (Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (2023) 14 Cal.5th 1104, 1116 (Adolph).) To address the problem, the Act established new civil penalties and authorized aggrieved employees to recover penalties, acting as private attorneys general on behalf of the state. (Ibid.; see Lab. Code, § 2699.) An employee who sues under the Act functions as an agent of the state—the real party in interest—and may seek any civil penalties that the state can seek. (Adolph, at pp. 1116-1117.) When employees recover penalties, the state receives most of the recovery. (Id., at p. 1116; see also Lab. Code, § 2699, former subd. (i).)

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Code of Civil

Procedure. 2 The Legislature recently passed amendments to the Act

that took effect July 1, 2024, and generally apply to actions filed on or after June 19, 2024. (See Lab. Code, § 2699, subds. (v)(1)- (2); Stats. 2024, ch. 44, § 1 [enacting Assembly Bill No. 2288, effective Jul. 1, 2024]; id., ch. 45, § 1 [enacting Senate Bill No. 92, As relevant here, to…