When an insurers sue to confirm that they owes no coverage, insureds can find themselves litigating on two fronts. ...
Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports
Scarlett Johansson 'wins' lawsuit against French author
By Dan D. Nabel
Over the last couple of weeks, almost every headline about the recent Scarlett Johansson defamation lawsuit has proclaimed tha...
Civil Litigation, California Supreme Court
What Duran really said about statistical samples
By Steven S. Kimball
On a close reading, the decision turns out to be not especially path-breaking, neither really curbing nor expanding the use of...
The pervasiveness of human trafficking in Cambodia is fightening, but the problem also plagues our own backyard. ...
The question of allowing an employee to telecommute becomes substantially more complex if the employee is an individual with a...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
What's in a buffer zone? It matters
By Erwin Chemerinsky
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in McCullen v. Coakley necessitates new legislation across the country to safeguard t...
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment
Presumption of prudence is imprudent
By Michelle L. Roberts
Fables are not just for children. In Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that ERISA fiduciarie...
Law Practice
Shine light on issues that linger in shadows
By David A. Lash, Daniel Grunfeld
Long before the national media shines its spotlight on a growing injustice, legal aid lawyers likely have already spent years ...
Environmental & Energy
Water issues reframe state fracking debate
By Kathryn L. Oehlschlager
The debate over fracking continues nationwide, but in California there is an increasing focus on one major issue: water supply.
Labor/Employment, California Supreme Court
Who's an 'employee' under the Labor Code still uncertain
By Scott D. Nelson
The recent decision in Ayala v. Antelope Valley Newspapers Inc. aside, plaintiffs in independent contractor misclassification ...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The thin line that all mediators walk
By Robert S. Mann
Mediators walk a razor-thin line on searching for "the truth" in a dispute; Most are more interested in identifying areas wher...
Civil Litigation
Decisions emphasize courts' 'gatekeeper' obligations
By Cynthia H. Cwik, Kelly V. O'Donnell
A recent decision provides authority to request that district courts affirm the reliability of an expert's opinion before admi...
Labor/Employment, California Supreme Court
Dim future for coerced union dues
By James Burnham, Michael A. Carvin, William D. Coglianese
A state Supreme Court decision cast doubt onto the constitutionality of public employees being compelled to pay dues to the un...
Intellectual Property
Administrative patent judges: not your typical federal judge
By Jennifer R. Bush
As the numbers of petitions for USPTO trials filed have increased, little attention has been focused on a related and equally ...
International Law, Health Care & Hospital Law
The hopeful cadence of Cambodia's health care struggle
By Julie L. Kessler
Mired as we Americans are now in the never-ending Affordable Care Act debate, it is often difficult to stay focused on the wor...
U.S. Supreme Court, Environmental & Energy, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Clear skies for state fuel standard
By Richard M. Frank
California environmental regulators breathed a sigh of relief last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Calif...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Utah same-sex marriage decision 'begs the question'
By Kris Whitten
The majority opinion fails to square itself with Supreme Court precedent.
Not all errors at trial require a retrial. The state Supreme Court is in the midst of deciding which do and which do not when ...
Letters, Labor/Employment, California Supreme Court
Gentry was humanely, deliberately put to bed
By Eric B. Kingsley
I take issue with several points made by Steven Katz in his recent column on the state Supreme Court's recent decision in Iska...
Administrative/Regulatory
Throwing stones at Google's Glass house
By Hsiao C. Mao, Sheila Pham
What makes Glass truly powerful is not just its technological specifications, but what it allows Google to potentially do in t...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Supreme Court chose to bunt this term
By Glenn C. Smith
The high court's term completed earlier last week appears noteworthy for how the justices mostly decided big cases in cautious...
Lawyers must be highly tuned to the world about them. Success depends on recognizing and confronting the unpleasant vicissitud...
The decision highlights a trend among the Roberts court where there is frequently unanimity without consensus. By Scott J. Wit...
Labor/Employment, California Supreme Court
High court opines on certification in misclassification actions
By Louis M. Marlin
On June 30, the state Supreme Court issued the third in a recent string of employment class action decisions that will have a ...
Transportation
9th Circuit reins in the misclassification of truck drivers
By Joshua H. Haffner, Drew Ferrandini
A recent 9th Circuit decision provides trucking companies further cause to worry as they battle claims for misclassifying driv...
Labor/Employment, Government
Lessons for California's minimum wage proposal
By Timothy J. O'Connell
Los Angeles officials considering raising the minimum wage to $15.37 an hour for workers in large hotels should heed lessons l...
The results of a recent study were clear: "Judges with daughters consistently vote in a more feminist fashion on gender issues...
Civil Litigation, Judges and Judiciary
Small claims court: an underused tool
By Robert Steven Harrison
The object of this article and self-study test is to provide an introduction to small claims court.
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment, California Supreme Court
Iskanian: Arbitration's got a brand new bag
By Steven B. Katz
It took a great deal of prompting from the nation's high court to make California fall in line.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Top 10 blunders to avoid in mediation
By Robert S. Mann
Here's a semi-satirical Top Ten list of the absolute best ways to destroy any chance of settling a case at mediation. ...