Government
Are Dog-Sniff searches during traffic stops lawful?
By Dmitry Gorin, Alan Eisner
The Court’s analysis is a straightforward application of the well-established principle that the legitimate justification for ...
Torts/Personal Injury, Land Use
Recreational land use immunity
By Reza Torkzadeh, Allen P. Wilkinson
By enacting Section 846, the legislature did not intend to immunize landowners from all liability for permissive and nonpermis...
Tax, International Law
Unreported gifts from non-U.S. relatives bring big tax penalties
By Bruce Givner, David Rice
The penalty for late filing is 5% of the gift’s fair market value per month, not to exceed 25% of the gift.
Litigation & Arbitration, Contracts
Sexual harassment settlements and confidentiality
By Robert W. Wood
To be clear, the IRS is never bound by an allocation in a settlement agreement. Even so, as a practical matter the IRS pays at...
Family
Neo-Nazism, flat earthers, and vaccine deniers. Custody disputes when a parent has nontraditional views.
By Scott J. Nord
Law Practice, Appellate Practice
West Coast Trial Lawyers co-founder and former federal prosecutor shares his career insights
By Kamran M. Shahabi
“Harvard to Hashtag” is a must-read for anyone thinking of starting or growing a law firm.
Ediscovery, Civil Litigation
SB 1149 will wreak havoc on California’s civil discovery
By Kyla Christoffersen Powell
SB 1149 forbids protective orders and confidential settlement agreements in any litigation involving alleged product defects o...
Government, Civil Rights
Voting rights and for whom the snake coils
By Paul Stanton Kibel
Historically, the right that was not to be tread upon, for which the poised snake was willing to strike and kill, was the righ...
Tax, Family
Seller beware – court rules that California can tax gain from the sale of goodwill
By Kevin R. Ghassomian, Walter R. Calvert
The trial court ruled, and the appellate court confirmed, that the FTB regulations for apportioning business income within the...
Law Practice, Appellate Practice
What Vin Scully taught me about life (and law)
By Nathaniel L. Bach
Scully was of course no lawyer, but he had in spades the qualities and skills that we would do well to borrow.
Law Practice, Appellate Practice
Municipal design immunity is tough to beat, even for the injured
By Garret D. Murai
“‘A mere conflict in the testimony of expert witnesses provides no justification for the matter to go to a lay jury who will t...
Musk talks and tweets a lot about taxes, including about how much tax he should pay on selling Tesla stock. He’s also complain...
Litigation & Arbitration
How not to screw up your case in arbitration, part two
By Christopher David Ruiz Cameron, Kathy Fragnoli
The testimony of even the most well-prepared witness may prove useless – or worse, problematic – unless the advocate listens a...
Entertainment & Sports
Stream it Tonight! A Free Soul (1931)
By Paul Bergman, Michael Asimow
Earl Rogers was known for his courtroom theatrics as well as his legal acumen. He was one of the first lawyers to offer eviden...
Letters
Basing recommendations on facts, not opinion: considering alternative pathways to licensure
By Claire M. Solot
Some lawyers make the mistake of focusing their entire trial preparation on the jury, and make the mistake of forgetting the j...
Law Practice, Government, Appellate Practice
Top twelve approaches for a better America
By James P. Gray
One of the extreme threats not only to our economy but to our physical safety is our return to dependence upon some pretty dan...
With a shrinking economy and rising inflation, many see the carried interest loophole as an important incentive for small busi...
If a targeted parent tells you all of the horrible things their children are saying to them, and you start thinking, “If the k...
They violated the veterinary rule of tax planning: you can save taxes as a bull; you can save taxes as a bear; but you can’t s...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Appellate Practice
Avoid Ethical Traps in Depositions
By Alanna G. Clair
Preparing any witness for deposition is an important part of an attorney’s role as zealous advocate, but knowing the boundarie...
Culminating in Vega, the U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to define the "atom" of the constitutional right prohibiting the use of...
Technology, Judges and Judiciary, International Law
Stochastic Gradient Descent
By Curtis E.A. Karnow
Unlike your country, which has been slow to accept the gifts of big data and artificial intelligence (I still smart at that us...
Land Use
No liability for trivial defects in sidewalks
By Reza Torkzadeh, Allen P. Wilkinson
Whether a defect is trivial or not is determined by looking at all of the facts of the particular case.
Legal Education
Criticism of non-exam pathway is thinly veiled protectionism
By Susan Smith Bakhshian, Stephanie Rae Williams
Unsupported assertions and broad misstatements about lax supervision or diploma privilege are convenient cover for what amount...
Civil Litigation
Corporate defendants could face the music in more forums
By Arash Homampour
The time is ripe for courts to take a new look at jurisdictional issues involving national corporations. The business landscap...