Failure to Probe Families Hurts Kids, Suit Says
By Susan Mc Rae
LOS ANGELES - Children's advocates Wednesday sued Los Angeles County, alleging officials there have failed to investigate fami...
GOP Bills Try to Rein In Courts
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON - On March 9, Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., with the support of 19 of his Republican colleagues, introduced a bill that wo...
Expert Will Adjust Bar-Exam Scores
By Leslie Simmons
LOS ANGELES - The State Bar will employ an expert to adjust scores for 700 applicants who were unable to take the last part of...
Case Alleging Misuse of Competition Law Settles
By Hudson Sangree
SACRAMENTO - A trial judge approved a settlement Wednesday between a lawyer accused of abusing the state's Unfair Competition...
Ruling Lets States Control Phone Service
By Toni Vranjes
LOS ANGELES - The 1996 Telecommunications Act allows states to prohibit cities from entering local telephone markets, the U.S....
State High Court Agrees to Consider Punitive Damages
By Peter Blumberg
SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court decided Wednesday to take a closer look at punitive damages, marking the first t...
Same-Sex Marriage Suits May Be Joined
By Tyler Cunningham
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Superior Court judges ironed out some procedural wrinkles Wednesday in two lawsuits seeking to v...
In This Country, Nobody Wants to Take the Blame for Anything
By Garry Abrams
Column By Garry Abrams - What do master terrorist Osama bin Laden and the nutritionally sinister cheeseburger have in common? ...
Open and Shut
By Dennis Opatrny
SAN FRANCISCO - In a case pitting the public's right to know against a defendant's right to a fair trial, a defense attorney ...
Spitzer Wows Jewish Group's Awards Dinner
By David Houston
LOS ANGELES - A pilgrimage to see Eliot L. Spitzer, the activist state attorney general of New York, has become an essential j...
Atheist Attorney Dazzles High Court in Pledge Case
By David Pike
WASHINGTON - Atheist Michael Newdow of Sacramento turned in a dazzling performance Wednesday as he tried to convince the Supre...
S.F. Mayor Has Unusual Support Before the High Court
By Peter Blumberg
SAN FRANCISCO - The city of San Francisco is not without allies in its defiant stand against the state's marriage laws. But th...
Forum Column - By Carlos A. Singer - Before the law reduced the case of Summerlin v. Stewart, 341 F.3d 1082 (9th Cir. 2...
Are Supreme Court's 'Friends of Federalism' True Blue?
By Columnist
Forum Column - By Timothy J. Dowling - The five-justice majority in recent 11th Amendment and Commerce Clause rulings has reli...
Attorneys Can Free Clients From Youth Authority's Grip
By Columnist
Focus Column - Juvenile Law - By Grace Suarez - If you are like many defense lawyers practicing juvenile law, you have a numbe...
Lawyer Sues to Overturn Copyright Law, Again
By Xenia Kobylarz
SAN FRANCISCO - Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig is taking another stab at overturning a federal law that extended copy...
'District Attorney': Not for Unmedicated
By Columnist
Forum Column - By Charles L. Lindner - ABC's latest contribution to crime drama, "The District Attorney," premiered at 10 p.m....
Bills Aim to Reduce Predatory Consulting
By Linda Rapattoni
SACRAMENTO - Three bills that would crack down on immigration consultants who prey upon desperate people with dreams of citize...
Bills Would Allow Inmate Media Access
By Hudson Sangree
SACRAMENTO - Two measures that would grant members of the news media greater access to state prison inmates cleared key commit...
FDA Decision Aids Critics of Antidepressants
By Jory Farr
LOS ANGELES - The Food and Drug Administration's order to drug makers to slap warning labels on antidepressants including Paxi...
Debate on Gay Marriage Heats Up
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON - Debate on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage continued in the Senate on Tuesday, as Republicans and D...
L.A. Jury Awards $58 Million to Man Burned in Work Accident
By Leslie Simmons
LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Tuesday awarded a Texas man $58 million for life-threatening burns he suffe...
Suit Seeks Public Access For 'Orphan Works' of Art
By Xenia Kobylarz
SAN FRANCISCO - Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig is taking another stab at overturning a federal law that extended copyr...
Deal May Push Industry to Clean Air
By Dennis Pfaff
SAN FRANCISCO - Environmentalists and air quality regulators announced a deal Tuesday that may help reshape the market establi...
Court Upholds Drunken-Driving Charge in Speed Trap
By Joy Shaw
LOS ANGELES - Tough luck if you are caught driving drunk, even in a speed trap. That's the message from an appellate court Mon...
Judges Debate Creating DNA Database
By Pamela Mac Lean
SAN FRANCISCO - In heated, sometimes humorous jabs, members of an 11-judge appellate panel Tuesday wrangled with each other as...
Judge Succeeds at Art of Persuasion, Lawyers Say
By David Houston
SANTA BARBARA - Not long after Judge Denise de Bellefeuille took a seat on the Santa Barbara Superior Court, she dreamed that ...
Dangerous Speech
By Peter Blumberg
SAN FRANCISCO - A lot of lawyers wish their disgruntled ex-clients would just shut up and go away. Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. did ...
George Pleads for Funding
By Hudson Sangree
SACRAMENTO - In his annual State of the Judiciary speech to the Legislature, Chief Justice Ronald M. George urged lawmakers Tu...
Panel Tosses Murder Convictions
By Stefanie Knapp
LOS ANGELES - The double murder conviction of an African-American gang member from Pasadena has been thrown out because the ju...