Chavez v. California Collision, LLC, 107 Cal. App. 5th 298 (2024)
Before trial on Samuel Zarate’s wage/hour claims, the employer (California Collision, LLC (“CCL”)) made an offer of settlement pursuant to Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 998. After Zarate failed to recover at trial more money from CCL than it had offered before trial, the trial court awarded the company $54,473 in costs pursuant to Section 998. The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the “to the extent they conflict, the specific one-way cost and fee shifting provisions [in favor of an employee] in Labor Code sections 1094 and 218.5 (absent a finding of bad faith [by the employee]) take precedence over the more general ones in Code of Civil Procedure sections 998 and 1032.”