Civil Litigation, Corporate
Private Plaintiffs Smell Blood In Section of Sarbanes-Oxley
By William F. Sullivan, Susie Yoo
With corporations still reeling from the expansive ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, another complication may b...
Intellectual Property
Copyright Registration Issue Widens Split Among Circuits
By Benjamin G. Shatz
Focus Column - By Benjamin G. Shatz and Monica Youn - Under the 1976 Copyright Act, copyright protection automatically attache...
Judges and Judiciary
Splitting 9th Circuit Is Costly, Conservative Ploy
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The proposal to split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a politically motivated a...
Judges and Judiciary
'Strict Construction' Criterion Doesn't Hold Water
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
University of Chicago Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein's recent work "Radicals in Robes," published by Basic Books in Sep...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Courts Explore 'Arbitrability' Under U.S., State Statutes
By Lawrence Waddington
Federal courts interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. Section 1, et seq.) and California courts applying the Calif...
Government
Maybe CIA Agent, Husband Should Sue White House Over Leaks
By Joseph H. Cooper
Forum Column - By Joseph H. Cooper - Here's a lawsuit I'd really like to see: Joseph C. Wilson IV and Valerie Plame Wilson v. ...
High Court Poised to Clarify Just What Is Fiduciary Duty
By Rex Heeseman
There are a handful of tort principles in which a lot of time passes before any meaningful activity. Then, all of a sudden, th...
Judges and Judiciary
White House, Miers Must Reveal Her Hidden Record
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - Harriet Miers' nomination poses an enormous challenge for the Senate in determining whet...
Focus Column - By Mitchell A Jacobs and Edward E. Kim - Family Code Section 852(a) requires that a transmutation, which is a c...
Judges and Judiciary
'The Law Firm' Incurs Wrath of Reality-Show-Hating Justice
By Arthur Gilbert
"A wonderful thing happened after the second episode of the reality series 'The Law Firm' aired a few months ago - it was canc...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
On 'First Monday,' Looming Matters of Life and Death
By Judith Daar
Forum Column - By Judith F. Daar - The annual anticipation surrounding the First Monday in October is heightened this year as ...
Insurance
Divergent Rulings Tweak Law On Insurance-Broker Liability
By Stephen L. Raucher
Since last year, two California appellate courts have taken the still-developing law regarding insurance broker liability in c...
Labor/Employment
College's 'Family-Friendly Edge' Can't Be Tightrope Over Chasm
By Charlotte Fishman
Can a woman have a family and a successful academic career? The jury is still out, despite the fact that "family-friendly" has...
Once upon a time, "ambiguity is king" dominated in California with respect to the interpretation of an insurance policy. Then,...
The Daily Journal asked two leading constitutional scholars and veteran court watchers, Erwin Chemerinsky and Douglas W. Kmiec...
The Daily Journal asked two leading constitutional scholars and veteran court watchers to offer their insights each day during...
Law Practice
Bring Compassion, Fairness Before Waves of Despair Wipe Out Dreams
By David A. Lash
Forum Column - By David Lash - Poverty kills. Recent events around the world have proved, again, that the lives of the impover...
Appellate Practice
State Appeals Court Provides Judicial-Notice Request Guide
By David J. de Jesus
Focus Column - Appellate Law - By Kathy Banke and David de Jesus California's courts of appeal generally have a pretty slow fu...
Law Practice
Katrina, Tradition of Injustice Combine, Make Perfect Storm
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
The practice of law in New Orleans, I would learn as a Los Angeles lawyer admitted to the California Bar, has a different rhyt...
More than a decade ago, California courts started to summarily adjudicate out "bad faith" claims if the insurer proved suffici...
Judges and Judiciary
Thomas, Unbridled, Would Gut 200 Years of Precedent
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - One of the overlooked, important themes of the U.S. Supreme Court's October 2004 term, w...
Peter Stumpf, the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, plays a 17th century Stradivarius cello. Although it is "...
Labor/Employment
Drip, Drip, Drip of Stray Comments Can Add Up to Ocean of Harassment
By Arthur F. Silbergeld
The law recognizes two types of sexual harassment: (1) quid pro quo and (2) hostile work environment. The former, easily recog...
Constitutional Law
With Rove, New York Times Trips on Its Own Standard
By William J. Becker Jr.
Let's review. Democrats have demanded the resignations of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Pa...
Constitutional Law
Justices Opinions Make Future of Establishment Clause Unclear
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The Supreme Court took two cases involving Ten Commandments displays likely in the hope ...
Letters, Judges and Judiciary
Bush's Picks Will Certainly Behave Predictably
By Jeffrey H. Friedman
In his commentary, "First Things First: Democarcy Depends On Independent Judiciary" (May 31 Daily Journal), Justice Arthur Gil...
Constitutional Law
Wider Media Market Helps Counter Deregulation Damage
By Clay Calvert
Forum Column - By Clay Calvert - There is no more powerful image or metaphor in the realm of free speech theory in the United ...
Constitutional Law
Bush's Injustices Recall Another George: King George III
By Stephen F. Rohde
Forum Column - By Stephen F. Rohde - As we celebrate the Fourth of July, we should recall the injustices that impelled the Fou...
Forum Column - By R. Konrad Moore - In 2003, a Bakersfield jury convicted Glen Johnson of murder. A year later, a California c...
In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell , 538 U.S. 408 (2003), the U.S. Supreme Court opined that "an award ...