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The following is not meant to be legal advice.

On March 30, 2007, Nixon Peabody presented a training on employment leave laws.

The California Family Rights Act is similar to the FMLA.  However, California law applies leave to domestic partners.  The federal law does not apply to domestic partners.  For example, if an employee takes 12 weeks off to take care of a domestic partner during a year under the California law, the person can take an additional 12 weeks off to take care of his/her own illness under the federal law.

In San Francisco, there is a new San Francisco paid sick leave law that was introduced in 2006 to prevent people who are sick from going to work, and to give leave benefits to the poor.  It is likely that the San Francisco law covers telecommuters.

The San Francisco law covers doctor appointments, and persons who are not immediate family members such as grandparents.  If someone does not have a spouse or domestic partner, the person may designate a person.  The employee is given 10 days every year to designate a person.  If the employer does not give the ability to designate, there may be difficulty in monitoring when an employee takes days off to care for one person, and then other days off to care for another person.  The speakers advised doing the designation at the same time as open enrollment for other benefits.