Companies often seem surprised when a new law goes into effect that affects them. However, governments aren’t that efficient. It takes months to review and pass a bill into law and the effective date is often several months later. It’s just a question of whether or not you were paying attention all those months to see which bills were thrown out and which were moved forward.

Timing is different when a judge has made a decision in court. A court decision will immediately change behavior and become the basis for more lawsuits. While a judge’s decision isn’t new “law,” it carries a lot of weight in future lawsuits and decisions. Generally, attorneys will immediately consider a court decision as the way things should be going forward in how we implement or maintain compliance with a law.

An example of a court decision was the California Supreme Court’s ruling on independent contractors early this year. Soon after the Court published it’s decision, new lawsuits were filed based on that ruling. As evidenced by the number of companies changing independent contractors into employees, the effect was immediate.

New laws passed have a specific effective date so we can prepare for them. A  [click to read more …]