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Entertainment & Sports,
Contracts

Aug. 4, 2012

'Modern Family' cast invokes 'seven-year rule'

The cast is lucky to avoid judicial review, since Section 2855(a) only voids the term of services agreements "beyond seven years from the commencement of service under it."

David B. Stern

Partner, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP

It is now commonplace for cast members of a successful television series to renegotiate their compensation after several hit seasons, but the cast members of "Modern Family" adopted an additional, aggressive strategy of filing a lawsuit seeking to invalidate their services agreements for violating the "seven-year rule" set forth in California Labor Code Section 2855(a). Vergara et al v. Twentieth Century Fox International Television In. et al., BC488786 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July ...

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