More than a decade ago, California courts began to summarily adjudicate out "bad faith" claims if the insurer proved that it ...
Constitutional Law
Movie Alerts People to U.S. Abuses of Individual Rights
By Stephen F. Rohde
Forum Column - By Stephen F. Rohde - "The guilty are arrested before the law is broken." Are these the words of Attorney Gener...
After the Los Angeles Lakers lost one of their games to the Sacramento Kings at the Western Conference Finals, Shaquille O'Nea...
Appellate Practice
In Some Cases, Appeal Will Lie From an Order, Not a Judgment
By Paul D. Fogel , Benjamin G. Shatz
Focus Column - By Paul D. Fogel and Benjamin G. Shatz - For some time now, the Courts of Appeal have admonished litigants that...
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky In Ring v. Arizona , 2002 DJDAR 7047 (U.S. June 24, 2002), the Supreme Court held t...
Forum Column - By David A. Lash - Excerpted from a law school commencement address delivered May 18 to the University of West ...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Alternative Dispute Resolution
New Ethical Rules Mirror the Judicial Erosion of the Arbitration Process
By Lawrence Waddington
Intending to assure the public of integrity in the arbitration process, the Legislature has amended the California Arbitration...
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky Although the First Amendment provides broad protection for the right to express ideas, it ...
Family, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Mediators Should Provide the Parties with Basic Information
By Franklin R. Garfield
Focus Column - By Franklin R. Garfield - It is widely assumed that family mediators do not have liability for professional neg...
Law Practice
Is Wealthy Actor Manipulating System?
By Gloria R. Allred, Margery Somers
Is Robert Blake legally required to pay the attorney fees and costs of Earle Caldwell, who has been charged as Blake's conspi...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Colleges Shouldn't Consider Race in Admission Decisions
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
Recently, the court in Grutter v. Bollinger upheld the University of Michigan Law School admissions policy which permits consi...
Forum Column - By David A. Lash - Attorney General John Ashcroft has risen from political ruin to a position from which he can...
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment inevitably requires that the courts balance th...
I am not yet eligible for Medicare but people periodically ask, "So when are you going to retire?" How periodically? I don't ...
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - When can state governments be sued for violating federal civil rights laws? For example,...
Recently, while in L.A. Superior Court on a demurrer hearing, I heard an exasperated judge pose this question: Why do you plai...
Forum Column - By David A. Lash and Beth A. Becker - In California, public policy is as clear as can be - protecting children ...
The American judicial system divides along legal lines paralleling our social culture. Constitutional law, state law and feder...
U.S. Supreme Court, Judges and Judiciary
Bureaucratic Bench Doesn't Intrigue Private Practitioners
By Gideon Kanner
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said a mouthful when, in his "state of the judiciary" report of last January, he deplored t...
My column usually appears on the first Monday of each month. But sometimes my day job gets in the way and I miss a month. On o...
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have dramatically impacted the price and availability of all types of insurance policies. Even ...
Litigation & Arbitration, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Court Authority
By Lawrence Waddington
If a claimant prevails in contractual arbitration and the arbitrator fails to demonstrate compliance with statutorily prescrib...
Forum Column - By David A. Lash - As part of a post-term bid to establish himself as an elder statesman and rehabilitate an im...
Although arbitration continues to receive support, it has its flaws. Aside from laws condemning unconscionable arbitration cla...
During the week of Feb. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases that received almost no media attention. Both involved pr...
Law Practice
California Courts Play Catch-Up in Growing Area of Toxic Mold Litigation
By Timothy D. Reuben
Perusing the recent verdicts and settlements, one certainly will discover a healthy smattering of cases involving mold. Mold s...
Things are not what they seem. A short time ago, newspapers carried an obituary that Arthur Gilbert died. Although at times I ...
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - On Feb. 7, for the second time in the past few months, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of App...
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The U.S. Supreme Court's most recent Fourth Amendment decision, United States v. Arvi...
Law Practice, Judges and Judiciary
Sept. 11 Unleashed Worst of Times, But We Will Recover
By Lawrence Waddington
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." When Charles Dickens wrote these immortal opening lines in "A Tale of T...