Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

On February 6, 2026, the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (“LWDA”) provided a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Notice”) to adopt new Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) regulations intended to supplement the legislative reforms to PAGA in 2024. The proposed rulemaking, in its current form, is great news for employers that have been inundated with frivolous PAGA filings.  As discussed below, the proposed regulations require stricter notice requirements, apply special requirements to high-frequency and vexatious filers, and call for additional disclosures related to PAGA settlements.

 PAGA Notice Content

 The proposed regulations provide greater clarity and guidance regarding PAGA’s prelitigation notice requirements. They are specifically intended to result in improved articulation of the facts and theories regarding alleged Labor Code violations by requiring factual specificity, including background information regarding the employee’s employment, and the facts and theories supporting each alleged Labor Code violation as well as a certification, signed by the employee or attorney, verifying the claims have legal and evidentiary support.

As explained by the LWDA in the Notice, many PAGA notices allege violations only in a very generic sense. For example, a claimant might allege employees were denied reimbursement due to using personal cell phones but will fail to describe the manner or frequency in which phones were used or required or allege meal or rest period violations without stating any actual facts describing the manner in which meal or rest periods were noncompliant. Per the LWDA, these types of generic, conclusory allegations make it difficult, if not impossible, for the agency to ascertain the nature of the violations alleged. Thus, more accurate articulation of the facts and theories supporting alleged violations under the proposed regulations would allow the LWDA to effectively investigate and prosecute alleged violations and assess the sufficiency of employer cure proposals.

For employers, adoption of the regulations would result in fewer boilerplate PAGA notices, more detailed allegations providing notice of violations, and a more meaningful opportunity to take advantage of cure provisions.

 High-Frequency and Vexatious Filers

 The proposed regulations would also provide additional restraints intended to deter deficient PAGA notice submissions, including those repeatedly filed by attorneys and law firms that have alleged frivolous, or boilerplate violations based on standard templates. A “high-frequency filer” is defined in the regulations as any attorney or law firm that has filed 200 or more PAGA notices during the 12-month period preceding the filing of a particular PAGA notice with an exemption for certain nonprofit or legal services organizations. High-frequency filers would be required to submit with their PAGA notices an additional certification by the employee stating the he or she has reviewed the notice and believes the allegations are not frivolous or lacking in evidentiary support.

Similarly, a “vexatious filer” is defined to mean any person or attorney that has repeatedly filed PAGA notices that do not comply with legal requirements, including on grounds the notices failed to adequately allege the facts and theories supporting the violations alleged or where the allegations appear frivolous or intended to harass. The designation would allow the LWDA to issue prefiling screening orders and potentially increasing scrutiny for repeat filers whose submissions are found to be unsatisfactory.

 Settlement Oversight

 Although PAGA settlements are submitted to both the LWDA and the court, the LWDA has found it is not able to fully review proposed settlements to assess the fairness and adequateness of their terms. The proposed regulations would require a more robust settlement submission process giving the LWDA at least 45 days to review proposed settlements. Specifically, the claimant must submit (1) a copy of the fully executed proposed settlement agreement, (2) a copy of the motion or other request filed with the court seeking approval of the proposed settlement, including all declarations or other documents submitted to the court in support of the request to approve the proposed settlement, and (3) a copy of a notice issued to other employees who have pending PAGA claims against the same employer with whom the plaintiff has entered into a proposed settlement agreement.

 The regulations remain in the proposal stage and may undergo changes as part of the comment process before any final adoption. The written comment period closes on March 23, 2026.