Judges and Judiciary, Covid Columns
Reflections on the other pandemic: intimate partner violence
By Eric C. Taylor, Lawrence P. Riff
Los Angeles County Superior Court’s restraining order courts in a year of emergency.
Probate, Family
Proving testamentary capacity in suits involving tortious interference with inheritance
By Mark J. Phillips, Jake V. Phillips
Only in the last decade have California courts recognized as tortious conduct the intentional interference by one person in th...
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal, Constitutional Law
At the Mountains of Madness
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
The Supreme Court is poised to review the standard for a defendant to successfully show that an error in federal constitutiona...
Technology, Law Practice
Explaining AI explainability amid a legally explainable vantage point
By Lance Eliot
Explanations are part of our daily lives. The advent of AI has brought the nature of explanations to the forefront of ongoing ...
Letters, Judges and Judiciary, California Courts of Appeal
It’s the CJP, not the complainant, that must maintain confidentiality
By Jon B. Eisenberg
The author of the March 31 Daily Journal column “Is the 3rd District slacking?” wonders why I went public with my recent compl...
State Bar & Bar Associations, Letters, Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Nonlawyer law firm ownership is a cure worse than the disease
By Danny Abir
Ralph Baxter and Zachariah DeMeola believe the legal system is broken. Their arguments for why and how nonlawyer ownership of ...
Wanna bet which proves more effective in speeding up justice for veterans… more government regulations or class action lawyers?
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Tips for preventing harassment and discrimination in law firms
By Shari L. Klevens, Alanna G. Clair
In the years leading up to the pandemic, many high-profile allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination were in the hea...
Construction, California Courts of Appeal
Mechanics liens, real property and contractual interest
By Garret D. Murai
Construction lawyers, and, indeed, many legal practitioners, are familiar with the mechanics’ lien.
Government
Stimulus bill gives music, entertainment and museum facilities a boost
By Phil Jelsma
Music venues, motion picture theaters and museums decimated by COVID-19 restrictions received a boost last month when the Amer...
Joel Lopez died of COVID this January. Apart from his wife Maria and his 2-year-old daughter Julieta, few people noticed. I di...
Intellectual Property
Custom sneaker wars: Nike’s case against the devil
By Victoria Burke
On March 26, MSCHF’s collaboration with Lil Nas X to produce “Satan Shoes” was announced via Twitter — and caught the attentio...
Under California law, there is a rebuttable presumption that an award of sole or joint physical or legal custody of a child to...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Deep historical review suggests no unfettered constitutional right to open carry
By Simon J. Frankel, Paulina Slagter
If the Supreme Court addresses public carry, and if it concludes there is some such unfettered right under the Second Amendmen...
Law Practice, Judges and Judiciary
Backlogs are hurting Californians. Time to pick up the pace
By Deborah Chang
Time was not on John Metzger’s side. The 72-year-old Californian was seeking justice after being diagnosed with malignant meso...
Government, Criminal
SF mayor misunderstands the role of the probation department
By Eugene M. Hyman
Mayor London Breed and the San Francisco County board of supervisors misunderstand the role of the probation department, seemi...
Professor John H. Minan’s March 26 column, “Quest to reform libel laws continues in recent dissent,” discusses how President D...
Law Practice, Civil Litigation, Appellate Practice
I want a new judge
By Benjamin G. Shatz
Back in the 1980s, Huey Lewis crooned about wanting a new drug. If Weird Al were a successful appellant’s lawyer, he’d transfo...
Civil Litigation, Administrative/Regulatory
Court enjoins Prop 65 cancer warnings due to First Amendment violation
By Willis M. Wagner
On March 30, the federal court in California Chamber of Commerce v. Becerra issued a preliminary injunction enjoining Proposit...
In 1884, the economy of California abruptly changed its prime focus from extraction, specifically gold mining, to agriculture....
When the pandemic first hit, my go to weekend refuge for a little sun and a sack lunch was a promontory in Elysian Park overlo...
Public officials, even judges, may sometimes give voice to social issues
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment, California Courts of Appeal, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Supreme Court eviscerates limits on the ministerial exception
By Felix Shafir, Jeremy B. Rosen
For nearly half a century, courts nationwide have recognized that a "ministerial exception" -- grounded in the religion clause...
Section 998 pitfalls to avoid
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment, Constitutional Law
Animus at the intersection of labor law and property law
By Glenn Rothner
Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid appeared to many court watchers as an effort to wedge the round peg of labor law into the square...
The top-down approach to conservatorship reform has been tried for nearly 15 years with very little success. Perhaps it is tim...
Technology, Law Practice
Apologetic AI might be heading toward big legal troubles
By Lance Eliot
Apologies are being increasingly emitted by AI systems that are becoming integral to our daily lives. Some believe that machin...
Labor/Employment
Legislature extends a lifeline to California workers with Senate Bill 95
By Ronald L. Zambrano
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 95 into law on March 19, he threw a critical safety net under thousands of California workers...
It feels good when the courtroom feels like home.
Let’s say that you need to reach something important or valuable on a high shelf. You can’t find a stepladder and you decide t...