Wage Law confirms that CashCall is good law

I was aware of  CashCall, Inc. v. Superior Court (2008) 159 Cal.App.4th 273 shortly after it came out.  What I didn't know was that (1) a Petition for Review was filed in that case, and (2) that Petition was just denied by the California Supreme Court.  That information, and other commentary is available at Wage Law, in the post entitled "Courts Uphold Discovery to Replace Class Representative Who Never Had Standing."

CashCall has to be about as far out on that line of cases as California courts will be able to go.  In Cashcall, the Trial Court applied Pioneer Electronics (USA), Inc. v. Superior Court (2007) 40 Cal.4th 360 and Best Buy Stores, L.P. v. Superior Court (2006) 137 Cal.App.4th 772 regarding the right to discovery putative class member identity, and a number of cases regarding California's liberal policy of permitting the substitution of a party with standing for one without standing, to conclude that a proposed class representative that never had standing could conduct discovery to find one that did have standing.  The next exit on that train is the stop where a box of rock sues doe defendants for undisclosed reasons and then gets discovery from a number of major corporations so that plaintiffs with claims and standing can substitute into the case, disclose their causes of action and identify the doe defendants.

I think it's fair to say that CashCall, Pioneer Electronics, Best Buy, Puerto, Belaire-West and the like have armed putative class members with a metaphorical bazooka.  Big business and the defense bar must be bent out of shape by this development.  Well, we know big business is unhappy, but the defense bar may be secretly delighting in all the extra work they will have to do (with associated billables) in class actions that retain their legs after class member identity discovery instead of dying on the vine.  I jest.  Really.  Some of my best friends are defense attorneys.  But here's a suggestion for big business: abide by the law and don't cheat shareholders or employees or consumers.  Now that I've removed the need for litigation, I will set about developing free, clean energy for all mankind in the form of nuclear fusion reactors.