Generally, California's whistleblower laws protect employees from retaliation by their employers for disclosing unlawful activity. However, until recently opinions differed as to whether the law protected employees who reported unlawful conduct that was known already to the recipient.

The California Supreme Court recently ended that debate and answered that it does. The court's opinion in People ex rel. Garcia-Brower v Kolla's, clarified that Labor Code Section 1102.5 shields more than the first employee to report a violation and protects employees who report unlawful conduct even if it was already known to the recipient. Specifically, the court held that whistleblower protection also can apply when an employee reports a violation to the person responsible for the unlawful conduct, as well as when an employee reports a violation that was already reported by another employee.