Balderas

FACTS

Lizbeth Balderas was a Fresh Start employee. In June 2022, she filed a complaint for civil penalties under PAGA against Fresh Start. She alleged, “Ms. Balderas is not suing in her individual capacity; she is proceeding herein solely under the PAGA, on behalf of the State of California for all aggrieved employees, including herself and other aggrieved employees.” Balderas claimed that Fresh Start did not provide employees with required meal break periods and rest periods, and that Fresh Start provided inaccurate wage statements, made untimely wage payments, and failed to pay wages at termination. Fresh Start filed a motion to compel arbitration. On its own motion, the trial court gave notice of its intent to strike Balderas’s complaint. It said because she had not filed an individual action seeking PAGA relief for herself, she lacked standing to pursue a “non-individual” or representative PAGA action on behalf of other employees. In Balderas’s opposition to the trial court’s notice of intent to strike her complaint, she wrote that she had “properly filed this action in a purely representative capacity.” (Capitalization & boldface omitted.) She argued the court was…