LOS ANGELES - Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has won a $10 million judgment in a defamation lawsuit against a gay porn star w...
SAN FRANCISCO - Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation finally have entered the bedroom. Using a law enacted a decad...
LOS ANGELES - Bryan Cave has appointed product liability and commercial litigation partner Jeffrey W. Morof to lead its Santa ...
Criminal
Lawyers Drop Like Flies as Blake Tries Directing His Murder Movie
By Garry Abrams
Column - By Garry Abrams - Actor-turned-murder-defendant Robert Blake seems to be going for a jailhouse Oscar. The name of Bla...
LOS ANGELES - Five more primarily Islamic countries have been added to the list of states whose nationals are required to regi...
SAN FRANCISCO - District Attorney Terence Hallinan stopped just short Wednesday of accusing the police department of a coveru...
LOS ANGELES - A just-completed federal report on California's child protective system indicates that too many of the 100,000 c...
SAN JOSE - A Santa Clara County judge refused Wednesday to throw out a complaint by the trustee for a bankrupt computer leasi...
Criminal
Pot Trial in U.S. Court Inspires Call for Jury Nullification
By Pamela Mac Lean
SAN FRANCISCO - The federal government's ability to win the conviction of an alleged marijuana grower, deputized by the city ...
SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Superior Court would shut down at noon every other Friday under one proposal to cope with a...
LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton and Mayor James K. Hahn unveiled a new anti-gang strategy Wednesday the...
LOS ANGELES - Entertainment giant Louis Meisinger is leaving his post as general counsel of the Walt Disney Co. to return to p...
SAN FRANCISCO - The head of Alameda County's juvenile court issued an unusual order Wednesday blocking a plan by the board of ...
Constitutional Law
Violent Verse By Teen-ager To be Heard By Justices
By Peter Blumberg
SAN FRANCISCO - A San Jose high school student whose self-labeled "dark poetry" got him 100 days in juvenile hall for making ...
Insurance
Duty to Settle Also Exists for Claims That Have Not Yet Become Lawsuits
By Columnist
Focus Column - Insurance Law - By Jordan Stanzler - For more than 35 years, California courts have held that insurance compani...
Focus Column - Insurance Law - By Clyde M. Hettrick - The recent decision in Powerine Oil Co. v. Superior Court, 104 Ca...
Forum Column - By Roger Pilon - With President Bush's January 7 renomination of the 31 judicial candidates who failed to win c...
LOS ANGELES - Defense lawyer Jennifer L. Keller was dismayed to turn on a local TV news program the day after Christmas and se...
LOS ANGELES - Mickey Mouse can rest safely in the cushy arms of the Walt Disney Co. once again, following Wednesday's ruling m...
Forum Column - By Glenn P. Sugameli - Lifetime federal judges decide how to interpret and enforce, and whether to uphold or st...
Litigation
Panel Denies Credit Card Holder's Class Suit Against Discover
By Katherine Gaidos
LOS ANGELES - A disgruntled Discover Card holder can't bring a class action against the company because his credit card agreem...
Focus Column - Probate Law - By Marshal A. Oldman and Susan J. Cooley - In Estate of Eugene , 2002 DJDAR 14487 (Cal. Ap...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Merrill Lynch Loses Its Bid for Arbitration
By Toni Vranjes
SANTA ANA - In a victory for an investor who sued Merrill Lynch for allegedly mismanaging his account, an Orange County judge...
Forum Column - By Pablo Agrio - Time after time, in criminal cases where the death penalty is applied, I watch in astonishment...
LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles immigration judge Tuesday scheduled a hearing for later this year to reconsider the asylum reques...
Judges and Judiciary
Humble Beginnings, Hard Work Make Judge Humane
By Anne La Jeunesse
LOS ANGELES - The man stood before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Weisman in the judge's San Pedro courtroom, exp...
SAN FRANCISCO - The insurance defense bar is sighing with relief now that the California Supreme Court has clarified a confli...
SACRAMENTO - Want a safe job in California during a major economic crisis? Try becoming a prison guard. The 2003-04 budget tha...
LOS ANGELES - In a victory for sweatshop opponents, the California labor commissioner has ruled that clothing retailer The Wet...
SACRAMENTO - California needs legal and ethical reforms to stop lawyers from abusing a statute that allows anyone to file a p...