AB 250 Cover-Up Rule: What Counts and How Courts Read It

Under this law, a cover-up is a joint effort to hide evidence of an assault or keep people quiet. The court rulings we found read the 2022 version. A lawyer can check your facts.

What must a claim against a company say?

It must say you were sexually assaulted and that someone is to blame under the law. It must also say the company, or its bosses, workers or agents, hid or tried to hide an earlier assault or report. A lawyer writes this in the court papers.

Our main guide explains the law’s full definition of a cover-up. This page looks at how courts have applied it.

The law reaches many legal theories against a company, such as carelessness, harm done on purpose, or responsibility for what its workers did.

Not being able to show a cover-up by one company does not stop your claims against others, including the person who assaulted you, from being reopened.

Does the cover-up have to come before my assault?

Two courts reading the 2022 law said it does. In 2023, a California appeals court said each person must claim the company’s cover-up came before her own assault. A federal court in 2024 said steps taken after the assault did not count.

The 2023 case was brought by several dozen women against Massage Envy’s franchisor and some of its franchise owners. They said massage therapists had assaulted them as adults.

The appeals court said the women had not shown how each one claimed a cover-up by her own defendant, before her own assault. It still sent the cases back to the trial court and said the law revived some, if not all, of the claims.

In the 2024 federal case, an engineer said she reported the assaults to the head of human resources, who reacted dismissively, and that she was later fired. The court said those steps came after the assault, so they could not be the cover-up the law requires.

Can one manager acting alone be a cover-up?

Maybe not, under one federal ruling. In 2024, a federal court in San Jose said the law’s words “concerted effort” mean two or more people working together. The law also counts what a company’s bosses, workers and agents did. So a lawyer will look at who took part.

That ruling decided only that one case. Other courts may read the words differently, and it was about the 2022 wording, which used the same key words.

The 2023 appeals court gave the trial court some guidance too. It said nothing in the law requires the earlier assault to be by the same person who later assaulted the woman suing.

Can a secrecy agreement be part of a cover-up?

It can. The law names secrecy deals, such as nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements, as examples. In the 2024 federal case, the court noted the woman did not claim any such deal.

Timing still matters. The 2023 appeals court, reading the 2022 law, said the cover-up had to come before each woman’s assault. So the date of any agreement may matter.

Lawmakers’ analysis of AB 250 quotes its supporters describing a workplace that used nondisclosure agreements to protect abusive behavior. That analysis explains the bill; it is not the law itself.

If you signed an agreement, keep a copy and show it to a lawyer. Our records page explains how to ask an employer for papers you signed to get or keep a job.

What kinds of facts did the courts say were missing?

Facts about earlier assaults or reports, and what the company did to hide them. In the 2024 case, the court said the woman pointed only to facts about her own assaults. It let her try again with facts showing a cover-up that came first.

In the 2023 case, the problem was showing the cover-up for each woman and each company. The court said the women had to tie the cover-up to the company each one says is responsible.

Being allowed to try again does not decide who is right. It means the court wanted more facts.

What happens when I check?

A lawyer will likely ask what the company knew before your assault, who knew it and what they did. You can share what you feel ready to share. Ask for any fee deal in writing, and read it before you sign.

In California, a fee based on a share of the money must be in a written contract signed by you and the lawyer. It must state the rate. In most cases it must also say the fee can be negotiated.

You do not have to go through this alone. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is free, confidential and open 24/7. Call 800-656-4673, text HOPE to 64673 or chat at RAINN.org/hotline.