California Courts of Appeal, Civil Rights, Government, U.S. Supreme Court
Voting rights – The California and U.S. Supreme courts are on a collision course
By Bruce A. Wessel
Vote dilution under state law is the issue before the California Supreme Court, specifically what a plaintiff must prove “to e...
Government
Stop paying attention to the Mayor’s race, the City Attorney has the real power
By Marissa Roy
With less than 5% of the Office’s 500 attorneys devoted to affirmative litigation, the next City Attorney is poised to dramati...
Appellate Practice, Law Practice, Legal Education
Passim, and its abolition
By Michael J. Raphael
When that rule change goes into effect, it will terminate the use of passim in the nation’s highest court. But there is someth...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Litigation & Arbitration
The most important question
By Fred Bennett
Intelligence, of course, is power, which in the choosing of arbitrators, comes down to intelligence ethically obtained - espec...
Government, Judges and Judiciary
A just society: No person, government official, or governmental entity is above the law…most of the time
By A. Marco Turk
Trump appointed fifty-four federal appellate judges in his four years in office, one short of the fifty-five nominated by form...
A battle seemed inevitable until, by happenstance, a column of 50 U.S. Cavalrymen on a routine march from San Diego arrived in...
Litigation & Arbitration
When the Show Must Go Online, Revisited: Some Things We’ve Learned from Two Years of Arbitration by Videoconference
By Christopher David Ruiz Cameron
When proceedings move online, they become less formal. With less formality comes less worry about everything from performance ...
Litigation & Arbitration
Arbitration Angle: Judicial Review of Arbitration Injunctions
By Gary A. Watt
The parties bargained for arbitration, and, in turn, a different set of rules.
Labor/Employment
California Women Lawyers support board diversity laws
By Ana M. Storey
When SB 826 was enacted, 29 percent of California public companies had no women on their boards. By March 2021, the percentage...
State Bar & Bar Associations
Towards a Tougher State Bar Audit
By Antonio R. Sarabia II
It seems the audit is more likely to lead to agency bloat than improved efficiency.
Government, Land Use, Real Estate/Development
Someday your price will come? Really?
By Michael M. Berger
The government got its project. In the process, private property was taken. After a trial, that property was valued, and the g...
Appellate Practice, Law Practice
Demystifying Conservatorship
By Matthew D. Kanin
Current conservatorship law neither implies nor requires a finding that a person is wholly incompetent. Eligibility for conser...
Environmental & Energy, Litigation & Arbitration
Groundwater adjudication cases are best resolved through mediation
By Patrick J. Walsh
Just last year, the Fifth District Court of Appeal issued a decision in Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases v. Los Angeles Count...
Health Care & Hospital Law, Torts/Personal Injury
Failing to follow proper filing for punitive damages under Section 425.13 can be harsh and unforgiving
By Benjamin T. Ikuta
The result was a family who now cannot assert claims for punitive damages against a health care provider who engaged in horrif...
Appellate Practice, Labor/Employment, Law Practice
A remote work model may have benefits, but it has costs – including novel legal liabilities
By Robert J. Hudock
Going forward, courts will likely consider new circumstances, and given the exponential increase in volume of remote work, new...
Government, Land Use, Real Estate/Development
Forced sale of public nuisance property not a taking
By Bradford B. Kuhn, Jillian Friess Leivas
On appeal, the Court explained that while the government must pay when it takes private property, including a lien, there is a...
Appellate Practice, Law Practice
Poking holes in CDA Section 230 immunity
By Douglas E. Mirell
Fortunately, there are a few cases that have poked some holes in the liability barrier erected by Section 230 – thanks largely...
True gifts are not income the IRS can tax, but the line between what is income and what is a gift is sometimes disputed.
President Biden has proposed what he calls the “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” as part of his new budget. The title is a misn...
Torts/Personal Injury
Recent decisions provide a roadmap for securing D&O insurance coverage for settlements with the SEC
By Rebecca L. Sciarrino, Jeremy A. Lawrence
In order to obtain coverage for disgorgement settlements, policyholders need to overcome a series of hurdles.
Legal Education
Constitutionality of proposed Hastings’ name change by California legislators questioned under contract theory
By Kris Whitten
By asking the Legislature to change the College’s name, its Board of Directors is attempting to impair the contract that creat...
Appellate Practice, Judges and Judiciary, Law Practice
Appellate review of the failure to exercise discretion
By David M. Axelrad
When evaluating a trial court’s rulings for potential abuse of discretion, look not only for both unreasonable trial court rul...
Data Privacy, Government
Congress is considering several bills involving privacy
By Anita Taff-Rice
One of the most interesting pieces of legislation that ought to have a chance of passage is S.500 – a bipartisan bill that wou...
Government, Judges and Judiciary
DA Gascón deliberately obstructs justice for victims
By Kathleen Cady
Victims are traumatized by crime. When the elected prosecutor tramples their rights and abandons them, they are traumatized a ...
Appellate Practice, Law Practice
CPRA series: Part II - Consumer rights
By Ron Raether, Kamran Salour
The CPRA modifies the rights afforded to California residents under the CCPA and creates new rights, such as the right to limi...
Judges and Judiciary, Technology
Bring transparency to our prison system!
By James P. Gray
As an example, one of my correspondents wrote to me that he is Jewish, and he had heard that some fellow inmates who were skin...
Appellate Practice, Law Practice
The degrading of the legal profession by mega-advertising programs
By George K. Rosenstock
The airwaves, billboards, and internet, are now flooded with legal advertising – one result of which is to generate tens of mi...
Appellate Practice, Judges and Judiciary, Law Practice
A jury of one’s peers? California’s pioneering efforts to reduce implicit bias in the courtroom
By Ashley M. Conlogue
Despite Batson/Wheeler, Black jurors are the subject of peremptory challenges about 72% of the time. In contrast, White jurors...
Entertainment & Sports
Stream It Tonight! The Talk of the Town (1942)
By Paul Bergman, Michael Asimow
Law is more than words on a page; its spirit must be engraved on our hearts. Many decades later, this speech still rings true.
Contracts, Letters
Martorell Law APC points out Suicidal Tendencies royalties litigation victories
By Eduardo Martorell