Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986: settlements: attorney’s fees.

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986: settlements: attorney’s fees.

AB 2577, as amended, Connolly.

What This Bill Does

• AB 2577, as amended, Connolly.
• Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986: settlements: attorney’s fees.
• The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, an initiative measure approved by the voters as Proposition 65 at the November 4, 1986, statewide general election, prohibits a person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from knowingly discharging or releasing that chemical into water, or into or onto land and passing into any source of drinking water, except as specified.
• The act authorizes a person, acting in the public interest, to bring an action to enforce the requirements of the act if specified requirements are met.

Limits and Unknowns

• This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Official Summary Text

AB 2577, as amended, Connolly.
Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986: settlements: attorney’s fees.
The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, an initiative measure approved by the voters as Proposition 65 at the November 4, 1986, statewide general election, prohibits a person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from knowingly discharging or releasing that chemical into water, or into or onto land and passing into any source of drinking water, except as specified. The act authorizes a person, acting in the public interest, to bring an action to enforce the requirements of the act if specified requirements are met. If there is a settlement of an action brought by a person in the public interest the act requires the plaintiff to submit the settlement to the court for approval upon noticed motion, and
authorizes the court to approve the settlement only if the court makes specified findings, as
provided.
provided, including that the award of attorney’s fees is reasonable under state law.
This bill would additionally require the court to find that the
settlement provides a public benefit and is in the public interest.
award of attorney’s fees is appropriate under state law and that the settlement is in the public interest and provides a public benefit.
The bill would further require, under a specified circumstance, the court to find that the settlement would require the defendant to
reduce the exposure to the listed chemical from the level that existed before the settlement or provide a warning that complies with the act if that warning was not provided previously. The bill would also establish a procedure pursuant to which the court would be authorized to enter an award of attorney’s fees if the Attorney General objects to the award of
attorneys’
attorney’s
fees set forth in the settlement, as provided.
Proposition 65 provides that it may be amended by a statute, passed by a
2
/
3
vote of each house of the Legislature, to further its purposes.
This bill would find and declare that it furthers the purposes of
Proposition 65.

Current Bill Text

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