San Diego County Judge Cindy Davis wins praise for her handling of family law disputes.
While national attention is focused on the hearings examining Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, average folks are actually m...
Environmental & Energy, Administrative/Regulatory
Prop 65: If it's on the list, you mustn't resist
By Daniel J. Herling
A recent ruling, however addressed a basic Prop. 65 issue: Should a certain chemical even be on a list of cancer-causing chemi...
Can that party rely on its own interrogatory responses to prove or defend its case? In California state court, the answer is no.
Law Practice, Intellectual Property
New rules, new issues: revisions to Northern District's local patent rules
By John P. Bovich, Keyonn L. Pope
The Northern District of California recently enacted revisions to the Patent Local Rules. The revised rules are effective imme...
The drama remaining in these confirmation proceedings consists of the skill by which a senator from the opposing party deploys...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Create a culture of compliance
By J. Randolph Evans, Shari L. Klevens
Law firms can actively engage with employees to ensure that all are knowledgeable regarding their obligations and understand t...
Civil Litigation, Insurance
'Special justification' and punitive damages
By Rex Heeseman
More clamor for larger awards of punitive damages? The "battle" may turn on the presence (or not) of a "particularly egregious...
IRS expands Fast Track Settlement nationwide for more taxpayers
By Robert W. Wood, Scott B. Weese
In the past, Fast Track Settlement has been available for complex audits -- handled by the IRS's Large Business & Internat...
Law Practice
Sole practitioners succeed with passion and activism
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
Too often those who seek to build a professional reputation forget about the passion that drove them to become an attorney in ...
Labor/Employment
Court rules advance on commission is not rest period pay
By Adriana Cara
In what has sent shockwaves through the employment law community, the California appellate court reversed the trial court's de...
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court purported to resolve a long simmering ambiguity in the nation's copyright law, one that h...
Wage and hour litigation continues to pose a threat to employers, especially in California. There are many potential reasons f...
Twenty years post-Buss, there are some breaching insurers still arguing they do not owe as damages the fees and costs...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Gray is the newest shade of legal malpractice
By Karen K. Stromeyer, Arthur J. Harris
We are in the midst of arguably the greatest wealth transfer in the history of our country. While this is certainly an opportu...
Law Practice, Administrative/Regulatory
Client confidentiality when the world is a microphone
By Anita Taff-Rice
WikiLeaks released disturbing information this month alleging that the CIA employs multiple types of technologies that allow a...
In his career and his jurisprudence, San Diego County Judge Timothy Taylor has a steady hand.
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Equal protection and the Sixth Amendment
By Barbara Babcock
In Peña-Rodriguez, the Sixth Amendment was found supple enough to offer relief where a juror's racial bias is so egregious an...
Judges and Judiciary, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
9th Circuit split: What's the math say?
By Brian Timothy Fitzpatrick
Smaller circuits minimize outlier decisions in both directions. Why do I say this? For a very simple reason: math.
Immigration, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Let's not assume good faith
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
On March 15, five 9th Circuit judges dissented from an order denying en banc review in Washington v. Trump, the appellate deci...
Government, Constitutional Law
'Faithless electors' pay for deviating from voters' wishes
By Charles S. Doskow
In perhaps the final action of the 2016 presidential election, three individuals in Washington state were ordered this month t...
GC Email
Multistate tax commission adopts income apportionment rules
By William H. Gorrod
Last month, the MTC held a special meeting and voted to approve a resolution adopting the Model General Allocation and Apporti...
Judges and Judiciary
Every judicial nominee is free (to state his or her opinion)
By Aram B. James
As you listen to the Gorsuch confirmation hearings, pay attention to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Republican Party of...
Environmental & Energy, Administrative/Regulatory
Bills respond to rollback of environmental laws
By Sarah N. Quiter, Gregory J. Newmark
A close look at one of the bills that aims to counter the Trump administration's rollback of environmental laws reveals import...
My last column began an exploration into what one Court of Appeal called "the mysteries of the writs." The mysteries? How does...
San Diego Judge Harry Powazek's patient approach has served him well in several fields.
If we are constantly surrounded by people who are negative, how is it possible not to get infected by their attitude? Is it an...
California Courts of Appeal
Summary judgment: no longer a disfavored remedy
By Josh McDaniel
A recent California Supreme Court decision might seem to be a simple opinion about the exclusion of undisclosed expert witness...
Tax preparers and tax advisers talk a lot about "disclosure." Tax people use the term as if it is something you sometimes have...
A labor of love of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been to give the wives of the U.S. Supreme Court justices their due credit in how t...