California like the rest of the country has many non-English or limited English speaking residents particularly within the Latino population. To capture these markets many companies often employ bilingual individuals. Sometimes these bilingual individuals chose to take advantage of the limited English speaking for greater profitability to the business and to line their own pockets.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is broken into titles. Title II is what is presently a great problem for business. Under Title II of the ADA, a business has to comply with many requirements imposed by the ADA. These requirements are intended to make acilities accessible to persons with disabilities.

Virtually every business has failed to comply with some requirement or other.

In a recent case (November 2006), the California Court of Appeal held that an assessment of punitive damages against a general contractor is warranted for lying about insurance coverage to the detriment of the property owner.

In the case of Kelly v. Haag, San Diego County Superior Court Case No.GIC830629, the property owner employed his friend to do work on his condominium.

Under California law landlords have to adhere to housing standards and must refrain from using self help. There are housing standards that if violated will deem the property untenantable, meaning it cannot be rented out.

The property is deemed untentantable, if it substantially lacks the following:

(1) Effective waterproofing and wether protection of the roof, walls, windows, and doors;

(2) gas facilities maintained in good working order;

(3) a water supply capable of producing hot and cold running water, and connected to a sewage disposal system;

(4) heating facilities maintained in good working order;

(5) Electrical lighting, maintained in good working order;

(6) the building, the grounds, appurtenances, and all areas under control of the landlord starting from the time of the commencement of the lease or rental agreement have to be kept clean, sanitary, free from all accumulations of debris, filth, rubbish, garbage, rodents, and vermin;

(7) an adequate number of appropriate receptacles for garbage and rubbish, in clean condition and good repair at the time of the commence of the lease or rental agreement, and the landlord is responsible for the clean condition and good repair of the receptacles under his or her control;

(8) floors, stairways maintained in good repair.

The Americans with Disabilities Act has several sections among other things is addresses public accessibility and employment discrimination. The ADA prohibits covered entities from discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities.

For purposes of the ADA in employment matters the term disabilities means that the impairment of the individual is one that substantially limits a major life activity.

These are six mistakes commonly made by car accident victims:

Mistake 1. After an accident most people call the local police or highway patrol. Invariably you will be asked if you are injured. If it is not a severe injury you will likely say that you are not injured. If you say you are not injured, then there is a good chance no one will come to the accident scene.

Title III of the ADA was intended to remove barriers and make places of public accommodation for all type of individuals with disabilities and not just those that are wheel chair bound. The primary focus under the ADA is persons with physical disabilities and includes a very broad range of disabled individuals.

The congressional committee reports and the Justice Department look to a comparison between a disabled person and an average person.

Employers and entrepreneurs often employ individuals as independent contractors in an effort to avoid having to pay for workers' compensation insurance, taxes, benefits and to avoid wage and hour laws. Sometimes they take steps to insure they are in fact contractors, but more often than not they do not.

Whether there is an employer employee relationship depends on many different factors.

This is not a complete and exhaustive list of all employees that bring lawsuits against their employers, but merely a summary of the kinds of things that I have observed that prompted employees to file a lawsuit. These are some common reasons for why employees sought to sue their employer or actually sued their employers:

1. Lack of clarity on what is expected from the employee.

In California it is an unlawful practice for an employer, to discriminate on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age, or sexual orientation of any person. This includes hiring, selection for a training program leading to employment, compensation or terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.