Civil Litigation, Health Care & Hospital Law
Oakland tragedy and limits on recovery
By Bruce G. Fagel
The events at Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland and in a courtroom in Alameda County have rekindled a debate abo...
U.S. Supreme Court, Appellate Practice
Post-argument briefs: a small burden with great benefits
By Erwin Chemerinsky
There is an old adage that there are three oral arguments for an attorney: the one that was planned, the one that was given, a...
Insurance
When insurers' litigation tactics become a liability
By Joshua H. Haffner, Drew Ferrandini
Public policy has promoted the adversarial process by giving special protections to conduct in the course of litigation. But t...
Attorney Helen Wan provides a thrill ride for those who have worked in our nation's big law firms - and those who have wondere...
Employers should pay special attention to the following bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that go into effect in 2014.
Until now, the Supreme Court has defined three levels of suspicion under the Fourth Amendment: probable cause, reasonable susp...
Re: "Legislation to Prevent Workplace Bullying Is Long Overdue," Dec. 31. ...
Administrative/Regulatory
There's no room in the debate for the labeling of GMOs
By Kenneth G. Eade
On Dec. 27, Sen. Diane Feinstein wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to re-evaluate the FDA's policy on the i...
"To Establish Justice for All: The Past and Future of Civil Legal Aid in the United States," by retired Court of Appeal Justic...
Sometimes, they have about as much importance as the number of angels that could be doing the cha-cha-cha on the head of the p...
California Courts of Appeal, Appellate Practice
Appellate attorneys, flailing in the dark
By Paul S. Berger
The notion of tentative appellate opinions still strikes most appellate justices as seditious, if not treasonous. Why? ...
Every lawyer should know the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, enacted in 2010, finally takes effect this year. ...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
New Year's Eve's most dangerous words: 'hosted bar'
By Wendy L. Patrick
Here are a few things to consider this year in order to help you survive New Year's Eve without making a fool of yourself or j...
There remains a major problem in the American workplace for which further statutory reform is overdue - workplace bullying.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Optimal success through artful negotiation
By Jan Frankel Schau
For litigators, it is undeniably worth investing some time into studying how to achieve best results through negotiation.
What lawyers should know about structured settlements
By Robert W. Wood
Whether you are a plaintiffs' lawyer or defense lawyer, you should know the basics of structured settlements. ...
What lawyers should know about structured legal fees
By Robert W. Wood
Every lawyer should know what a structured fee is and what it is not. ...
Entertainment & Sports, Constitutional Law
Paparazzi law limits our First Amendment rights
By Nary Kim, Andrew J. Thomas
The Legislature has a love-hate relationship with freedom of the press, depending on who's advocating for change.
I was stunned to read "Television station's decision to choose 'young attractive females' to fill vacant weather anchor positi...
The fact is that American cities built trolley car lines, then paid good money to destroy them, and now are spending more good...
The LA Sheriff's Department hired dozens of deputies even though background investigations found they had committed serious mi...
Judges and Judiciary, Appellate Practice
Improve arguments with zero extra cost
By Joshua M. Stein
Division 8 of the 2nd District Court of Appeal, at only 12 years old, is one of the youngest courts in California. As members ...
Entertainment & Sports
A generation of incorrect Talent Agencies Act rulings
By Rick Siegel
An incorrect holding has been the basis of five decades of determinations where personal managers - and now attorneys - lose t...
International Law, Government
Womenomics, Abenomics and some small talk
By Julie L. Kessler
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to promote the acceptance of more women in the workplace. ...
The NSA deployed undercover spies to create characters and conduct surveillance in online games and virtual worlds such as "Wo...
California jurists finally seem to "get" Internet defamation in 2113; they also sought intelligible limits to the anti-SLAPP s...
Intellectual Property
Searching for higher ground to understand patent eligibility
By Vernon M. Winters
That is one of the lessons from one of the first district court decisions to assess, after Myriad, the question of what...
Judges and Judiciary, Government
Nuclear fallout and California nominees
By Carl Tobias
Many observers will focus on California as ground-zero in the post-nuclear landscape because numerous Golden State nominees wi...
Government, Corporate, Administrative/Regulatory
We're the number one judicial hellhole, again
By Kim Stone
California has once again received the dubious distinction of being named our nation's number one "judicial hellhole" by the A...
A recent case is no ordinary denial-of-benefits ERISA case; the court affirmed a precedential damages award based on the theor...
