More than a decade ago, California courts started to summarily adjudicate out "bad faith" claims if the insurer proved suffici...

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - One of the overlooked, important themes of the U.S. Supreme Court's October 2004 term, w...

Peter Stumpf, the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, plays a 17th century Stradivarius cello. Although it is "...

The law recognizes two types of sexual harassment: (1) quid pro quo and (2) hostile work environment. The former, easily recog...

Let's review. Democrats have demanded the resignations of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Pa...

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The Supreme Court took two cases involving Ten Commandments displays likely in the hope ...

In his commentary, "First Things First: Democarcy Depends On Independent Judiciary" (May 31 Daily Journal), Justice Arthur Gil...

Forum Column - By Clay Calvert - There is no more powerful image or metaphor in the realm of free speech theory in the United ...

Forum Column - By Stephen F. Rohde - As we celebrate the Fourth of July, we should recall the injustices that impelled the Fou...

Forum Column - By R. Konrad Moore - In 2003, a Bakersfield jury convicted Glen Johnson of murder. A year later, a California c...

In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell , 538 U.S. 408 (2003), the U.S. Supreme Court opined that "an award ...

Letter to the Editor - Stephen Rohde, in his opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment authorizing Congress to outla...

Forum Column - By Robert L. Bastian Jr. - Two related trends are worsening government officials' indifference to the minimum s...

Focus Column - Appellate Law - By Benjamin G. Shatz - In February, Congress passed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, whic...

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - In two important decisions Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that peremptory cha...

"Our system of democracy depends on judges being supported in the exercise of their constitutional obligation to protect the b...

Focus Column - International Law - By Barbara Klementz and Ute Krudewagen - U.S. companies commonly offer one or more types of...

"First thing we do, let's kill all the judges." That is what some politicians want to do to the judiciary. Proposed ways to di...

Californians paid $5.4 billion dollars for youth and adult corrections in the budget year 2003-2004. The proposed expenditure ...

The idea of strict construction merits continued comment because it is the current president's litmus test for selecting Supre...

Policy exclusions limit or take away coverage. Some exclusions address risks that an insurer wants to avoid (intentional injur...

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice William Rehnquist will not be remembered as a...

On July 1, the California Civil Discovery Act - Code of Civil Procedure Sections 2016 through 2036 - is getting a facelift, th...

Just a few years ago, it was unusual for patents to make newspaper headlines - but times have changed. A small company is awar...

In certain quarters on the left and the right, it is conventional wisdom that everyone on George W. Bush's short list for the ...

Those with even a slight interest in punitive damages are aware of State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co. v. Campbell , 538 U. S...

Focus Column - Appellate Law - By Kathy M. Banke and David J. de Jesus - The "harmless error" rule sounds deceptively simple. ...

Forum Column - By Jan Stevens - The suggestion that Congress exceeded its powers in enacting the Endangered Species Act is pro...

Forum Column - Erwin Chemerinsky - The conservative attack on the courts is truly frightening and should be denounced by elect...

Q: When? A: The fall of 1964. Q: Where? A: Division 20, the misdemeanor master calendar court of the Los Angeles Municipal Court.