Why It’s Good to Know the State Laws that Govern Your Daily Affairs

The basics

While we can’t cover everything you need to know here, we can lay out several of the basics on California-specific laws.

Driving laws

Every US state has its own driving laws, which can make driving from state to state tricky because the rules can change suddenly as you are going down the road. There are certain things you should keep in mind about California laws in particular:

• The speed limit is usually 65 miles per hour. On some freeways it is 70 miles per hour. If you are on a two-lane highway, the speed limit can be as low as 55 miles per hour.
• California requires that all passengers in a car wear a seatbelt.
• The usual “two-second rule” regarding the amount of space that drivers should leave between themselves and the car in front of them is three seconds.
• It is illegal to smoke in a car when a minor is also in the car.
• The legal blood alcohol content in the state is 0.08%. For drivers under 21, the limit is 0.01%.
• These are just a few of the basic driving laws. However, they get much more specific than this. If you need to learn the rules, you can go through a California drivers ed course online and learn a lot before you even get on the road.

Employment laws

There are several important employment laws that Californians should know:

• Employers in California are required to pay overtime to people who work more than eight hours a day. People who work more than 12 hours a day are eligible for double overtime.
• Minimum wage is $16.50 per hour in most places, with some cities having higher minimum wages.
• Workers are entitled to ten-minute rest breaks for every four hours worked. For shifts longer than five hours, workers are entitled to a 30-minute lunch break.
• California has strict laws against harassment and discrimination based upon gender, religion, race, and disability.
• Sick leave is mandatory. Don’t let your boss bully you into coming into work if you don’t feel well (you could infect other people, too).

Employment laws are particularly important to keep track of, because many employers are notorious for trying to violate them and trick employees into thinking that their practices are lawful.

Rental laws

California has very specific laws with regard to house and apartment rental. The state also has other policies that residents should be familiar with:

• There are strict rent increase limits. Landlords cannot raise tenants’ rent by more than 10% of the total amount or 5% including the change in cost in living over the course of a year.
• The state has a strict just cause eviction requirement. What this means is that the landlord needs to be able to prove a just cause in evicting a tenant after the tenant’s first year of living in a given property.
• Many California cities have rent control ordinances. Beyond the state policy, many cities have their own ordinances that can help protect the rights of tenants.
• California has strict laws regarding tenant screening that are designed to ensure that potential tenants do not face unfair or prejudicial treatment in the screening process.
• The state has a mandatory disclosure law. What this means is that landlords are required to disclose information about any potentially harmful aspects of a given home, including asbestos, mold, lead-based paint, or anything else that could endanger a tenant’s health. If a tenant moves into an apartment and immediately discovers one of these problems, they have the right to take legal action against the landlord.

Landlords will often try to shirk responsibility for many of the above-mentioned problems. If you can find legal references to prove their responsibility, it will help you out of many potentially harmful situations.

Know the law!

For all these reasons, you should make a concerted effort to know the laws of the state that you live in. Knowing what your rights and duties are will help keep you on track in many respects.