WASHINGTON LANDSCAPE Prop 65 Bounty Hunters Cases Continue to Rise By Matt Levetown D espite regulatory changes intended to reduce the number of "bounty hunter" lawsuits under California's Proposition 65 (Prop 65), an unprecedented number of new actions by plaintiff groups were initiated in 2018. Data from the California Attorney General's Prop 65 website shows that 2,358 60-Day Notices of Violation were filed in 2018, with 607 of these actions filed in the fourth quarter of last year. The comparative number of new 30 MARCH 2019 | COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG cases for 2017 was 2,036 - and for 2016 was 1,576. As this article went to press, the majority of the bounty hunter cases filed last year remained unresolved. HISTORY Prop 65 was passed by a California voter's referendum in 1986 as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. Since then, the requirements of the Act have expanded to cover over 900 chemicals that the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has determined cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. Although Prop 65 grants the California attorney general the power to bring lawsuits for violations of the statute and implementing regulations, it extends the same enforcement power to citizens of California. A 2014 law enacted in California gives any entity with fewer than 25 employees 14 days to put up the appropriate signage and pay a smallhttp://www.ILMA.ORG