As I sleepily read The New York Times over my morning coffee two weeks ago, I was startled into wakefulness by a passionate ed...
Judges and Judiciary
Nod to Scholar-Advocates Could Be Justice Breyer's Duck Hunt
By Hirbod Rashidi
Forum Column - By Hirbod Rashidi - Much has been written about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer's recent book "Active ...
Criminal
Routine Pretrial Request May Assure Compliance With Disclosure Rules
By Konrad Moore
Several years ago while prosecuting a DUI case, the judge quizzed me about the police report. Trying to see if the case could ...
Insurance
Court Keeps Focus on Reprehensibility In Reviewing Punitive-Damages Awards
By Rex Heeseman
For a while, the state Supreme Court did not substantively address the issue of punitive damages until its important decisions...
By Erwin Chemerinsky - The U.S. Senate should refuse to confirm Samuel A. Alito Jr. for the Supreme Court because of his almos...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Arbitration Maze Left Courts With Plenty to Decide in '05
By Lawrence Waddington
State and federal courts continue to shape the course of alternative dispute resolution in all its formats. Issues of contract...
Appellate Practice
Courts' Response to Shoddy Appellate Practice? Pony Up!
By Benjamin G. Shatz , Michael M. Berger
Foucs Column - By Benjamin Shatz and Michael M. Berger - Once upon a time conventional wisdom held that appellate courts were ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Law Schools Have Right to Bar Military Recruiters
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - No one should be forced to discriminate or to facilitate discrimination based on race, g...
Forum Column - By Wayne R. Terry - The so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act - the reform of the B...
Judges and Judiciary
Case Furthers Trend Limiting Post-Appeal Judge Challenges
By Jens B. Koepke
Focus Column - By Jens B. Koepke - Section 170.6(a)(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that a peremptory challenge "ma...
"Sounds like!" I said. Screamed, really. That's what I said, but what I did was - scream. Maybe shriek is what I did. Whatever...
Civil Litigation, Corporate
Private Plaintiffs Smell Blood In Section of Sarbanes-Oxley
By William F. Sullivan, Susie Yoo
With corporations still reeling from the expansive ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, another complication may b...
Intellectual Property
Copyright Registration Issue Widens Split Among Circuits
By Benjamin G. Shatz
Focus Column - By Benjamin G. Shatz and Monica Youn - Under the 1976 Copyright Act, copyright protection automatically attache...
Judges and Judiciary
Splitting 9th Circuit Is Costly, Conservative Ploy
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The proposal to split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a politically motivated a...
Judges and Judiciary
'Strict Construction' Criterion Doesn't Hold Water
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
University of Chicago Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein's recent work "Radicals in Robes," published by Basic Books in Sep...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Courts Explore 'Arbitrability' Under U.S., State Statutes
By Lawrence Waddington
Federal courts interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. Section 1, et seq.) and California courts applying the Calif...
Government
Maybe CIA Agent, Husband Should Sue White House Over Leaks
By Joseph H. Cooper
Forum Column - By Joseph H. Cooper - Here's a lawsuit I'd really like to see: Joseph C. Wilson IV and Valerie Plame Wilson v. ...
High Court Poised to Clarify Just What Is Fiduciary Duty
By Rex Heeseman
There are a handful of tort principles in which a lot of time passes before any meaningful activity. Then, all of a sudden, th...
Judges and Judiciary
White House, Miers Must Reveal Her Hidden Record
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - Harriet Miers' nomination poses an enormous challenge for the Senate in determining whet...
Focus Column - By Mitchell A Jacobs and Edward E. Kim - Family Code Section 852(a) requires that a transmutation, which is a c...
Judges and Judiciary
'The Law Firm' Incurs Wrath of Reality-Show-Hating Justice
By Arthur Gilbert
"A wonderful thing happened after the second episode of the reality series 'The Law Firm' aired a few months ago - it was canc...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
On 'First Monday,' Looming Matters of Life and Death
By Judith Daar
Forum Column - By Judith F. Daar - The annual anticipation surrounding the First Monday in October is heightened this year as ...
Insurance
Divergent Rulings Tweak Law On Insurance-Broker Liability
By Stephen L. Raucher
Since last year, two California appellate courts have taken the still-developing law regarding insurance broker liability in c...
Labor/Employment
College's 'Family-Friendly Edge' Can't Be Tightrope Over Chasm
By Charlotte Fishman
Can a woman have a family and a successful academic career? The jury is still out, despite the fact that "family-friendly" has...
Once upon a time, "ambiguity is king" dominated in California with respect to the interpretation of an insurance policy. Then,...
The Daily Journal asked two leading constitutional scholars and veteran court watchers, Erwin Chemerinsky and Douglas W. Kmiec...
The Daily Journal asked two leading constitutional scholars and veteran court watchers to offer their insights each day during...
Law Practice
Bring Compassion, Fairness Before Waves of Despair Wipe Out Dreams
By David A. Lash
Forum Column - By David Lash - Poverty kills. Recent events around the world have proved, again, that the lives of the impover...
Appellate Practice
State Appeals Court Provides Judicial-Notice Request Guide
By David J. de Jesus
Focus Column - Appellate Law - By Kathy Banke and David de Jesus California's courts of appeal generally have a pretty slow fu...
Law Practice
Katrina, Tradition of Injustice Combine, Make Perfect Storm
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
The practice of law in New Orleans, I would learn as a Los Angeles lawyer admitted to the California Bar, has a different rhyt...