Bank of the West appointed Vanessa Washington general counsel in San Francisco. Washington, who also will serve as executive v...
SAN FERNANDO - In the volatile arena of family law, Commissioner Alan H. Friedenthal has a knack of defusing tensions and soot...
When she's not at work, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Margaret L. Oldendorf spends most of her time with a horse nam...
EL CAJON - From the windows of his chambers, Superior Court Judge Eddie C. Sturgeon can look out over the city where he grew u...
SAN FRANCISCO - A firefight has broken out in the sleepy Sacramento suburb of Yolo County, where a handful of Hispanic residen...
Labor/Employment
Court Says Disability Isn't in the Eye of the Beholding Employer
By David Minkown
Employment Column - Much has been said by the courts regarding an employer's obligation to engage in the interactive process t...
SAN FRANCISCO - Mediation lets people be human, according to Michael J. Berger, a longtime San Francisco trial attorney-turned...
Zoning, Planning and Use
Judge Won't Let Flood Control District Use Developer's Land
By Rebecca Beyer
LOS ANGELES - The floodwaters finally have broken in a four-year battle between San Bernardino County and a land developer ove...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
In Which a Private Eye Expounds on Mandatory Fee Arbitration
By David Minkown
Focus Column - My name is Johnny Diamond. I'm a private eye. I've got four slugs in me. Two of them are lead. That morning, Sa...
Forum Column - It has been nearly five years since the tragic events of Sept. 11 and in the intervening years; government powe...
California's first statewide Youth Court Summit will take place Monday through Wednesday at the UC Santa Cruz. The summit's ai...
LOS ANGELES - Merck & Co's win in California's first Vioxx liability trial on Wednesday, the fifth defense verdict in eigh...
Appellate Practice
Environmentalists Ask Senate to Leave the 9th Circuit Alone
By Hurley
WASHINGTON - Environmental activists signaled Thursday that they are quaking in their boots at the prospect of the 9th U.S. Ci...
LOS ANGELES - Richmond, Va., known for Civil War monuments and a sort of Southern formality, couldn't be more different from L...
LOS ANGELES - A new American Bar Association study reveals that many women of color perceive that the glass ceiling is shatter...
SAN FRANCISCO - The employment bar exhaled a sigh of relief Thursday when the California Supreme Court ruled that an employer ...
Criminal
Judicial Panel Reassigns Case After Judges Disagree on Who Should Hear It
By Martin Bergn
LOS ANGELES - In a rare move, a committee of federal judges has reassigned a criminal case after two judges disagreed over who...
The State Bar Court has ordered a former Sonoma County prosecutor suspended from practice for three years for professional mis...
LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors accused an Encino attorney Tuesday of swindling $300,000 from clients mostly with disabilities, incl...
WASHINGTON - The White House has nominated Lawrence J. O'Neill to be a U.S. district judge in California's Eastern District. ...
SAN FRANCISCO - Seven years after being convicted of attempted murder, a Tulare County man still hasn't had a full hearing on ...
Forum Column - On June 29, the Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury released its 2005-06 final report where it proclaimed that ...
Labor/Employment
Proposed Bill Could Make Misclassifying Workers Very Costly
By David Minkown
Focus Column - California Assembly Bill 2186, introduced on Feb. 22 by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, states it is the "intent o...
Environmental
Judge Cuts Punitives in Water Pollution Case by 90 Percent
By Dennis Pfaffn
SAN FRANCISCO - Companies hit with a $175 million punitive-damages verdict in a water pollution lawsuit saw that amount cut Tu...
Judges and Judiciary
Freelance Ringleader Takes Controls of Media Circus at High-Profile Trials
By Tim Hay
MARTINEZ - High-profile trials have a way of creating tension between the news media and court officials. ...
SAN DIEGO - David A. Macias, the clerk who stole $100,000 from an El Cajon court and gambled most of it away, will spend nine ...
A $28 million award against Philip Morris in a sick-smoker case remains in limbo while the U.S. Supreme Court re-examines limi...
LOS ANGELES - When City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo issued a legal opinion last week blasting the City Council's approach in ask...
Judges and Judiciary
Watchdog Panel Launches Probe of Riverside Judge
By David Houstonn
SAN FRANCISCO - A Riverside County Superior Court judge, who was involved in a public rift with the district attorney, was cha...
Entertainment & Sports
Resurrecting the Dead: Band Gives Rhino Control of IP
By Peter Zuckerman
LOS ANGELES - The Grateful Dead was dying. "We're not good businessmen," said Bill Kreutzmann, the drummer who founded the ba...