Education Law, Government, California Supreme Court
High court affirms unreimbursed school mandates are constitutional
By Craig Anderson
The state Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld an appellate court concluding it is constitutional for the Legislature ...
Judges and Judiciary
Auditor finds procurement, disclosure problems at Judicial Council
By Malcolm Maclachlan
State Auditor Elaine Howle has found problems with disclosure and procurement at the Judicial Council, though her most recent ...
Judges and Judiciary, Government, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Court OKs CHP officer’s suit involving 2nd District justice
By Malcolm Maclachlan
A black female California Highway Patrol officer can move forward with her sexual and racial harassment claims against the sta...
Judge Anthony A. Trendacosta of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, who has spent his entire career working to protect and ...
As a commissioner, former star prosecutor quickly won over a concerned family law bar.
Southern California Edison Co. has fended off claims one of its substations emitted stray voltage, harming residents and prope...
Civil Litigation
Minor files sex abuse suit against Inland Empire Boy Scouts chapter
By Glenn Jeffers
The complaint alleges former troop leader Charles “Kip” Yotter met the minor in 2012 and began grooming him “for the purposes ...
Civil Litigation
PG&E hit with $2.5B putative class action over outages
By Winston Cho
PG&E’s planned energy shutoffs were only necessary because of its negligence maintaining its transmission lines, according...
Immigration, Constitutional Law
FISA case presents novel 4th Amendment questions
By Gina Kim
A southern Lebanese Muslim is fighting to keep the federal government from spying on him under the Foreign Intelligence Survei...
A candidate running for a Los Angeles County Superior Court seat who legally changed his first name to “Judge” can appear as s...
Criminal
Plaintiff’s attorney in Roundup cancer trial charged with extortion
By Winston Cho
Virginia attorney Timothy Litzenburg approached “Company 1” and threatened to find plaintiffs to sue for manufacturing a purpo...
Civil Litigation, Antitrust & Trade Reg.
Robins Kaplan to represent consumers in technology price-fixing class action
By Winston Cho
will represent consumers who, between May 2008 and April 2016, purchased hard disk drive suspension assemblies for use from J...
Entertainment & Sports, State Bar & Bar Associations
Avenatti’s involuntary license deactivation hearing begins
By Meghann Cuniff
LOS ANGELES -- A former client of Michael J. Avenatti described his slow realization that his attorney was defrauding him, tel...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Judges and Judiciary, Government, Constitutional Law
Plaintiff appeals district judge’s defiant takings ruling to keep Knick alive
By Blaise Scemama
In what both sides believe to be the first federal takings claim to test these post-Knick waters, a Riverside federal judge gr...
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment, Constitutional Law
US Supreme Court will consider ministerial exception doctrine in discrimination cases
By Glenn Jeffers
The high court will decide if teachers at two Catholic schools fall under the ministerial exception, which prohibits civil rig...
Labor/Employment
Uber’s $4.4M EEOC harassment settlement followed by new employee class action
By Glenn Jeffers
The complaint claims Uber has misidentified its ride-hail drivers as independent contractors rather than employees since April...
Civil Litigation, Immigration, Government
Government avoids contempt while settlement for abused immigrants approved
By Craig Anderson
A magistrate judge said Wednesday he would approve a settlement of a lawsuit filed by a class of abandoned, abused or neglecte...
Civil Litigation, Government
Renne, Cotchett firms sue Juul for Bay Area schools
By Craig Anderson
Five San Francisco Bay Area school districts, along with the San Mateo County Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools...
Law Practice, Law Office Management
Planned merger will create one of the country’s largest firms
By Henrik Nilsson
Faegre Baker Daniels LLP and Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP will combine to create Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath early nex...
Criminal, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
GOP-named 9th Circuit judges decry death penalty ruling
By Brian Cardile
A chorus of Republican-appointed judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decried on Wednesday a ruling that granted re...
Criminal
US judge says state corrections department ‘knowingly misled’ court on prisoner mental health care
By Malcolm Maclachlan
The judge stopped short of giving explicit instructions to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in her ruling, but...
State real estate law expert was 'indescribable,' colleagues say.
Civil Litigation, Labor/Employment, Alternative Dispute Resolution
US judge rebukes defense in latest dispute over mass arbitration
By Meghann Cuniff
Two current federal cases highlight a growing controversy in class action disputes
Labor/Employment
State launches website to answer the many questions on AB 5
By Steven Crighton
As a newly launched state website seeks to provide clarity on the Employment Status Law, concerns, critiques and legal challen...
Civil Litigation, Bankruptcy
Despite governor’s objection, judge OK’s PG&E settlement
By Winston Cho
A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved the Pacific Gas & Electric Corp.'s plan to reorganize the utility despite the gover...
Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property
Irell scores $752M win in patent case over cancer-fighting treatment
By Craig Anderson
Attorneys for Gilead Sciences Inc. asked a Los Angeles federal judge Tuesday to postpone entering judgment of a $752 million v...
Government, Environmental & Energy
Trade groups sue state over light bulb rules
By Malcolm Maclachlan
A pair of trade groups have sued the California Energy Commission, claiming the state’s energy efficiency mandates for light b...
Law Practice, Government
Proponents of higher medical malpractice damages cap kick off campaign
By Malcolm Maclachlan
Often fighting back tears, proponents of an initiative to raise California’s 44-year-old cap on non-economic medical malpracti...
Civil Litigation, Government
CPUC won’t opine on wildfire inverse condemnation doctrine
By Gina Kim
State utility regulators in so many words, declined to offer its viewpoints on strict liability doctrine of inverse condemnati...
Civil Litigation, Health Care & Hospital Law
Johnson & Johnson wins LA baby powder case
By Blaise Scemama
After a day and a half of deliberation, a Los Angeles jury sided with Johnson & Johnson in the latest suit alleging the co...