Sometimes, a lawyer might be the first responder
Civil Litigation, California Supreme Court
In a recent case of first impression, the California Supreme Court considered whether settling with a party in a multiparty to...
Civil Litigation, Government
Legislation will promote frivolous shakedown lawsuits
Assembly Bill 1270 (Stone) is an attempt to expand the False Claims Act to allow the attorney general, local prosecutors and p...
Criminal, Constitutional Law, California Supreme Court
The California Supreme Court has rejected the government's attempt to require a youth probationer, as a condition of release, ...
Criminal, Constitutional Law, California Courts of Appeal
The Jagged Shore
The shore defining the boundary of indigent defendants' constitutional right to forestall or forego liability for certain asse...
Criminal, Constitutional Law
‘ERPOs’ can help reduce gun violence
States are increasingly recognizing that lives can be saved by Extreme Risk Protection laws, which enable people who exhibit ...
Are we in the midst of a similar trend in formal legal writing, relaxing the use of contractions? Are the few judicial contrac...
Law Practice
WHY?
August — the month that many of my readers are on vacation. So why write an August column? Other columnists take off a month o...
We send them there. We break them. Then we take away their benefits.
Our country can uphold both national security and its commitment to refugee protection. Indeed, it's done exactly that for dec...
Government, Constitutional Law
Last month, the San Francisco City Council voted to prohibit city agencies from using facial recognition software on municipal...
Currently pending before the California Supreme Court is an issue that calls into question the motivations of California offic...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Rub a dub dub
There may now be three justices open to moving away from substantive due process as the basis for incorporating the rights the...
Government
How LA can make an immediate impact on homelessness
In May 2015, The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board asked readers, “Could you live in L.A. on $221 a month?” The answer then, a...
Government, Environmental & Energy, Administrative/Regulatory
Will the wave of PFAS litigation hit California?
In the last year, litigation involving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances has spiked across the nation. To date this litigati...
They profoundly influence our lives. They can be found all over the world. When not fulfilling their mission, they blend in wi...
Tax, Law Practice
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed at the end of 2017 doubled the estate and gift tax exemption. With much aplomb, it was announ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Government, Constitutional Law
Supreme Court’s nondelegation ruling settled nothing
On the morning of September 28 last year, Sen. Jeff Flake announced he would be voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. A few hours...
Military Law, Health Care & Hospital Law, Government, Family
Many veterans believe that government benefits are only available if they were wounded in combat or suffer from a disability r...
Community News
LA-ABOTA program update
You won't find a better close-up audience experience to hone your trial skills than by watching and hearing the state's very b...
Government, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Preserve LA’s Dispute Resolution Program
For 30 years -- since Avis Ridley-Thomas founded it in 1989 -- the Dispute Resolution Program has been providing free mediatio...
Real Estate/Development, Government
HUD policy would exacerbate a worsening crisis
Last month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published a proposed rule which would terminate housing assistance...
Judges and Judiciary, Constitutional Law
An insightful look at state constitutional law
I recently attended a talk by Judge Jeffrey Sutton who sits on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The subject was a book h...
Julian Assange. Bryan Carmody. Each incident is a troubling incursion on First Amendment freedoms. One is a flat-out violation...
Civil Litigation, Law Practice, Government
Does California value public interest litigation?
In the past few years, private advocacy groups that intervene to defend challenged laws have successfully sought hundreds of t...
Corporate, Contracts
As the asset-light business model for hotel companies has become de rigueur, long-term management contracts have taken on incr...
Criminal
Reflections on a life without parole sentence
“What am I supposed to do, just die in prison?” I was seated just outside the dilapidated holding cell adjacent to the courtro...
Law Practice, Judges and Judiciary
A moral dilemma
So am I going to go ahead with my novel? I’m thinking about it.
Environmental & Energy, Administrative/Regulatory
To produce sufficient food and fiber to feed California, the nation and the world, Central Valley farmers use synthetic and o...
From ancient times, people have erected statues celebrating significant figures of their eras. As times change, such monuments...