Government, Torts/Personal Injury
Jaywalking is now legal, but Californians still need to be cautious
By Logan Quirk
Supporters have heralded the law change as a victory for pedestrians, and for people living in low-income communities of color...
The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in a disaster a...
Consumer Law, Government
Street vending legitimized under state’s retail food code
By Czarmaine Majan
In 2018, sidewalk food vending was first decriminalized through Senate Bill 946. After that, however, local authorities could ...
Government, Labor/Employment
Extraordinary legislation sows new unionization standards for agricultural laborers
By Vanessa C. Krumbein, Rana Ayazi
There is evidence of a huge push for unionized workplaces affecting all industries in California, including farmworkers. In re...
Writing clearly requires getting out of your shell as a writer, and thinking about your reader.
Letters
“Simple fix” to replacing certified shorthand reporters is pound foolish
By Mary E. Pierce
A live court reporter makes a record in realtime and typically has one or two backups to that record. This is a tested practic...
Wills, Estates & Trusts, Real Estate/Development
Exempt fiduciary sellers and their duty to disclose
By Teresa Gorman
If an Exempt Seller has a Death Certificate in their possession which indicates there was a death on the property and they res...
Entertainment & Sports
Stream it Tonight! 12 Angry Men (1957)
By Paul Bergman, Michael Asimow
A value of movies like 12 Angry Men may be to remind us that jury trials are a central aspect of American justice.
Court values real estate over reform
By Michael J. Aguirre
Values expressed in 1974 Political Reform Act forgotten in 2022
Appellate Practice, Law Practice
Trial tips for a winning closing argument
By Dan L. Stanford
I am constantly surprised how many defense lawyers fail to go through the verdict form in their one shot at closing argument. ...
Litigation & Arbitration
Arbitration agreements should be read as drafted
By Ronald L. Zambrano
A fundamental principle of contract law is that contracts are read in favor of the party that did not draft the agreement. Giv...
Antitrust & Trade Reg., Contracts, Labor/Employment
FTC proposed rule on employee noncompetes
By Pooja S. Nair
Employers with existing non-compete clauses at the time the rule goes into effect must rescind the non-compete clause no later...
Litigation & Arbitration
Can someone sue the dead? Yes, but it’s a minefield
By Daniel J. Wilson
If someone has died and owes you money, you may be entitled to relief but be careful: strict rules and procedures can kill oth...
Civil Rights, Land Use, Real Estate/Development
Unlawfully restrictive covenants must be redacted
By Nicole M. Rivers, Anthony Nash
Stakeholders with actual knowledge that a deed, declaration, or governing document may contain an unlawful restrictive covenan...
Alternative Dispute Resolution, Construction
Post-settlement third party reports are likely binding
By Garret D. Murai
The Court of Appeals “respectfully” concluded that “if Coral Farms intended a different result, then perhaps it should have ne...
The IRS does not have the power to outvote the Tax Court or Eleventh Circuit, but it has the power to audit.
What general counsels and company leaders need to know about transparency and accountability for data breaches
What employers need to know about additional rights in the California Privacy Rights Act
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Top 5 trusts and estates cases of 2022
By Ciarán O’Sullivan
There were more Trusts and Estates appellate opinions compared to the year prior. Though none had earth shattering implication...
l am like a fugitive from a horror movie, one of the undead. Luckily, I don’t enter the courtroom from the entrance, an unnerv...
Letters
“Tossing” of $36.5 million motorcyclist death verdict unjustified
By Arash Homampour
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Appellate Practice, Law Practice
Alternative method of service allowed on foreign defendants
By Josh Eichenstein
Under a recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, a plaintiff suing a foreign-domiciled defendant for Lanham Act violati...
Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman was the right person at the right time for veterans in family law matters.
Insurance, Litigation & Arbitration
2023 brings a new set of rules for making settlement demands
By Casey R. Johnson
One of the most notable changes required by SB 1155 is the time an insurance company must be given to act on a pre-litigation,...
Ediscovery, Judges and Judiciary
Voir dire: disability as a basis for peremptory strikes
By William Slomanson
California has now provided other state and federal courts, and legislative bodies, with the opportunity to consider whether t...
Wills, Estates & Trusts
A small bright line in the murky law of no contest clauses
By Mark J. Phillips, Jake V. Phillips
No contest clauses come in all shapes and sizes, from a single paragraph to a dozen pages, and courts have found their enforce...
At a time when conspiracy theories are running rampant, the justice system needs to be all the more deliberate and grounded in...
Civil Rights, Government
Are there limits to police interrogation techniques?
By Dmitry Gorin, Alan Eisner
The admissibility of a suspect’s custodial statement, even post-Miranda invocation, depends on the totality of the circumstances.
Marijuana and the workplace in the age of legalization.
Litigation & Arbitration
Pre-litigation settlement just got a lot more demanding
By David B. Ezra, Jamil Shaaban
One of the outcomes of SB 1155 is that it imposes substantive requirements on pre-litigation time limited settlement demands.