When the doors of this fifth principal courthouse opened six decades ago, it was heralded as the "Dream Courthouse" and the "C...
Law Practice
Step up to represent veteran inmates
As of Jan. 1, 2019, veterans sentenced prior to Jan. 1, 2015 will have an opportunity to go back to court and ask for a senten...
Native Americans, Family, Constitutional Law, Civil Rights
ICWA is under attack, again
The Indian Child Welfare Act, and potentially tribal sovereignty, suffered a significant setback last week when a federal cour...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Taking back takings lawsuits
This term the Supreme Court has a chance to overturn a decades-old decision that kept many property owners out of federal courts.
Law Practice, Criminal
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. For years, law enforcement agencies, social service providers, non-gove...
Take a look around you. Consider what is occurring throughout the country. An uneducated citizenry and one predominantly educa...
Criminal
Stand up for victims of sexual assault and abuse
There are countless reasons why people who are sexually assaulted or abused do not report what happened: It’s painful. It’s em...
This article not a judgment on the merits of capital punishment or its appropriateness in these cases, which include defendant...
Probate, California Supreme Court
Probate court closed to disinherited trust beneficiaries
In a case of first impression, a California Court of Appeal recently held that only trustees and beneficiaries under a current...
Law Practice, Judges and Judiciary
Walking into the inner sanctum of a judge’s chambers, I immediately felt a sense of awe. Sure it was filled with lots of diplo...
Real Estate/Development, Environmental & Energy, Administrative/Regulatory
The affordable housing crisis in California is longstanding and well known. A recent California Court of Appeal decision addre...
Judges and Judiciary, Family
If you stop by family court for an hour, you will see lawyered-up C-suite executives and self-represented day laborers sitting...
A little-known California constitutional provision allows courts to overturn election results due to defamation if the losing ...
Law Practice, California Supreme Court, Appellate Practice
There is a new kind of risk in California law that affects the way cases should be analyzed, on appeal, in trial, through sett...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Will the ‘digital divide’ persist?
At the end of last term, the U.S. Supreme Court hammered a bit deeper the wedge it had previously inserted between electronic ...
Government, Environmental & Energy, Constitutional Law, California Courts of Appeal
The 3rd District Court of Appeal recently ruled that the public trust doctrine can apply to groundwater extraction, but the co...
Did you know that the subatomic particle, the quark, derives its name from Joyce’s impenetrable novel “Finnegan’s Wake”?
As football is America's favorite spectator sport, it is not surprising that many football terms have crept into our everyday ...
Government, Immigration
Possible federal action imposes grave immigration consequences on older adults and their families for accessing public benefits.
Administrative/Regulatory
San Francisco’s law goes into effect in January, paving the way for it to become the largest city in the United States to ban ...
Administrative/Regulatory, Environmental & Energy
Wildfires, farms, fish and meeting water demands
California’s record-breaking wildfires in 2018 raise not only climate change and forest management issues, but also spotlight ...
International Law, Civil Litigation, Litigation & Arbitration
International arbitration finally comes to California
Effective Jan. 1, 2019, Senate Bill 766 amends the California International Arbitration statute with new rules for California ...
Judges and Judiciary, Government
Keep judges out of politics
Since the last effort in 2000, there has been little public discourse about the need to put a constitutional amendment on the ...
With the academic year underway, first-year law school students need to be aware of the "seven deadly sins," critical missteps...
As UCI’s law school celebrates its 10th anniversary, ranked 21st among all the nation’s law schools, reviewing those early com...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, California Courts of Appeal
Retroactive tort liability and the First Amendment
Why were three companies singled out to pay an enormous “public nuisance” bill? Because in the first half of the 20th century,...
Law Practice
The need for greater access to legal representation
We will never win the war on poverty in America unless we solve the problem of legal aid first.
Real Estate/Development
Pop-up retailers: A landlord’s perspective
Pop-up shops are here to stay; the following is a list of characteristics that should be considered by a landlord interested i...
Labor/Employment, Alternative Dispute Resolution
With just 11 full-time and part-time DFEH mediators, there are far more cases in California that we can assist.
Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court
A right to bear arms, and no other rights
If Brett Kavanaugh's views becomes the law in more cases like Young v. Hawaii, the right to bear arms is at risk of swallowing...