Business Law Journal

Coinciding with the approval to progress further into Stage Two, the LA County Public Health Officer issued a revised Order on May 29, 2020. In our earlier blog post on May 28, 2020, we discussed the four categories of “Lower Risk Businesses” that were authorized to reopen under LA County’s Order issued on May 26, 2020 (after the county first began moving into Stage Two), which included retail businesses, businesses that support retail business, non-essential office based businesses, and indoor malls and shopping centers. The revised Order issued on May 29 added a fifth category of “Lower Risk Businesses” for hair salons and barbershops. The revised Order also expanded permissible operations for restaurants to include “in-person dining.”

As with all of the Lower Risk Businesses permitted to open under the May 26 Order, the additional businesses and expanded services that are now allowed to reopen under the revised Order must likewise prepare, implement, and post industry-specific protocols for ensuring employee health, safety, social distancing, and infection control. The required protocols for hair salons and barbershops can be found here, and are also attached to the revised Order as Appendix H. The protocols for restaurants offering in-person dining can be found here, and are also attached to the revised Order as Appendix I. See our earlier blog post for the specific protocols for the other Lower Risk Businesses. Essential Businesses may continue to remain open as well, provided they continue to adhere to the existing Social Distancing Protocols, available here.

Although in-person dining may resume and hair salons and barbershops may reopen, the revised Order still requires various types of businesses that the Order deems “higher-risk businesses . . . where more frequent and prolonged person-to-person contacts are likely to occur” to remain closed, including:

• Bars and nightclubs;
• Gyms and fitness centers;
• Movie theaters, live performance venues, and concert halls;
• Sports stadiums, arenas, theme parks, and festival spaces;
• Bowling alleys and arcades;
• Public piers;
• Personal care establishments currently required by the State to remain closed, including nail salons, massage and body art establishments;
• Indoor and outdoor playgrounds for children (except if located within a childcare center);
• Community centers, including public pools (but not including pools, hot tubs, and saunas located in multi-unit residences or part of a Homeowners’ Association); and
• Indoor museums, galleries, and zoos.

The revised Order continues to require all persons to practice Social Distancing at all times and to wear a cloth face covering when in contact with others who are not from the same household.

The revised Order does not apply to the cities of Pasadena or Long Beach, each of which has its own public health officer. However, the cities of Pasadena and Long Beach each issued similar revised orders on May 29, which likewise allows in-person dining and hair salons and barbershops to reopen. The revised Pasadena order is available here, and the revised Long Beach order is available here. Each of the Pasadena and Long Beach revised orders also has specific protocols the reopened businesses must follow in their respective jurisdictions.

If you have any questions about whether and how your business may re-open, contact the authors or your regular counsel at AALRR.

This AALRR presentation is intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in reaching a conclusion in a particular area of law. Applicability of the legal principles discussed may differ substantially in individual situations. Receipt of this or any other AALRR presentation/publication does not create an attorney-client relationship. The Firm is not responsible for inadvertent errors that may occur in the publishing process.

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