Case Results

Case Result: Published Appellate Victory for Public Employee Whistleblower Retaliation

December 2025

Can a public employer block a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit by forcing an internal appeal that cannot actually decide retaliation claims? A published California Court of Appeal decision says no. In Romero v. County of Kern, the California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District issued a published opinion holding that public employees are not required to exhaust internal civil service remedies when those procedures do not provide a meaningful mechanism to adjudicate whistleblower retaliation claims. The Court reversed a dismissal at the pleading stage and allowed the employee’s claims under Labor Code sections 1102.5, 6310, and 98.6 to proceed. Attorney Andrew S. Pletcher, serving Of Counsel with Brock & Gonzales, represented the employee on appeal. This decision now provides statewide published authority limiting a common defense tactic used to prematurely dismiss whistleblower retaliation cases. Read On

Case Update: Court of Appeal Affirms—Arbitration Agreement Unenforceable in Velarde v. Monroe Operations, LLC

June 2025

The trial court did not err in denying a motion to compel arbitration of employment-related causes of action because there was extensive evidence of procedural unconscionability, with an adhesive contract buried in a stack of documents which the employee was not given meaningful time to review, and a manager expressly misled the employee as to the agreement's nature and terms by stating arbitration would allow resolution of any issues without either side having to pay lawyers, when in fact the agreement provided for an adversarial arbitration process with discovery as permitted by federal rules; The agreement's terms were substantively unconscionable because it was unlikely a lay person could navigate complex rules to obtain and admit discovery, while the employer likely had an attorney available, and thus the agreement was so one-sided as to benefit only the employer. Read On