Torts/Personal Injury, Civil Litigation
Res Ipsa Loquitur: How presumptuous!
Because it is a rule concerning the presentation of evidence and is not an independent ground of liability, a plaintiff cannot...
Torts/Personal Injury, Civil Litigation
Did Dominion dominate Fox?
Beyond the financial consequences of this settlement lie deeper and rather more unsettling questions about why Dominion agreed...
U.S. Supreme Court
The major question doctrine: a positive view
The doctrine preserves Congress’ power while preventing courts from interpreting a statute in a particular way based on a thin...
Insurance, Contracts
The “genuine issue” or “genuine dispute” doctrine is a product of California case law. The doctrine has evolved and mutated ov...
Technology
A brief exploration into using AI in the practice of law
Attorneys Paul Kiesel and Jeffrey Koncius of Kiesel Law LLP in Beverly Hills demonstrate a few ways you can use AI in the prac...
Torts/Personal Injury, Civil Litigation
Will Dominion dominate Fox?
While some commentators have characterized Judge Davis’ refusal to enter summary judgment on the “actual malice” element as a ...
Judges and Judiciary
A high bar for the high court: ethics and the judiciary
Judicial officers are well-advised to avoid any type of conduct that has the potential not only to create a conflict of intere...
Technology, Law Practice
Things we have learned over the past year (or not)
The client, who is in custody or sitting by themselves at counsel table, starts to talk to the Court about their case, their f...
Civil Procedure, California Supreme Court
California Supreme Court Review: March 2023
If the Supreme Court decides that a court in a non-California forum is one of competent jurisdiction to rule on a motion to c...
Government, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
The prospect of other judges in future cases similarly substituting their own judgment for FDA’s expert scientific determinati...
California Supreme Court
Castellanos shows the futility of petitions for review
Our state high court exists to maintain consistency and clarity in the law – not to correct errors.
Family, Constitutional Law
Paint it black
Juvenile dependency presents somewhat unique issues of mootness.
Technology, ESG
Responsible AI as part of a company's ESG framework
How "Responsible AI" practices in combination with ESG frameworks can be applied both to mitigate risk and support a corporat...
Government, Criminal
Trump’s greatest deal
Trump is a dealmaker and he may yet be able to make his greatest deal of all. The election cycle is just around the corner – o...
Technology, Law Practice
ChatGPT proved to be a liar and a literary fraud in my very first interaction with him, ah … it. How very human. There are man...
Judges and Judiciary
The perils of politics
Attorneys – as ambassadors of the courts, please work to help educate others on the importance of judicial independence and ke...
Technology, Law Practice
Let’s not replace the lawyers
The ChatGPT moment is not the moment when we decide whether a computer can replace the legal profession. That debate is...
Obituaries, Judges and Judiciary
March is the cruelest (cruellest) month
At judge’s meetings, in fact, at any gathering, when Norm (Justice Norman Epstein) spoke, everyone listened. I remember the fi...
Government, Civil Rights
In 2019, the Trump administration rewrote the Title IX rules via a formal rulemaking process. Schools no longer had an affirma...
Torts/Personal Injury, Government, Civil Litigation
The legislature should make the change permanent, because doing so is both just and feasible.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
A Few Good Mediators
While the mediator’s job is not to evaluate the case, the best mediators help the parties adjust their altitudes, bringing the...
Year in Review Column, Administrative/Regulatory, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
In 2022, the Ninth Circuit’s notable FCA rulings included one interpretation and application of the FCA’s scienter requirement...
Securities
Steering a WKSI through volatile markets
Taking the time to make the eligibility determination and prepare the necessary filings will provide a company with the advant...
Tax
The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act has gathered sufficient signatures to be placed on the California st...
Ediscovery, Criminal
The crime-fraud exception stems from a letter Trump’s legal team sent to the Department of Justice that was arguably used in f...
State Bar & Bar Associations, Law Practice
Several members of the Blue Ribbon Commission missed as many as a quarter of the meetings, and the absenteeism rate was highes...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The power of apology in mediation
Studies show that doctors who give apologies in serious medical malpractice claims pay less to settle their claims compared to...
Technology, Insurance
Insurance carriers have declined coverage on the basis of the Fraudulent Instructions Exclusion, presumably arguing that the r...
Government, Civil Rights
Government speech seems like a relatively simple doctrine, and yet its simplicity can be deceiving, especially in the context ...
Government, Criminal
The coming prosecution of Donald Trump
The recently published report of the Jan. 6 committee includes sworn testimony that strongly supports a criminal prosecution o...