Bench & Bar: June 17

In this week's episode of Bench & Bar:

With all due respect, it means the opposite
Baruch C. Cohen of the Law Office of Baruch C. Cohen APLC examines the courtroom phrase "with all due respect" and what it signals when counsel deploys it against a tentative ruling already committed to writing. Cohen argues the disclaimer is a shield that reveals the absence of the respect it claims, and that the most experienced litigators say less when a ruling already favors them -- pressing past a firm tentative tends to harden the record, not move it.

A new path for construction defects in California
Brenda K. Radmacher, partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, breaks down Assembly Bill 1903, the most sweeping proposed overhaul of California's construction defect regime since SB 800, the Right to Repair Act. The bill would make the prelitigation repair process a true prerequisite to suit, restore a resultant-damage requirement of present physical damage, and create a voluntary "certified building" pathway that could immunize qualifying condominium projects from later defect claims.

What caregiving taught me about being a better lawyer
Jessica K. Lomakin, partner at Best Best & Krieger LLP, reframes the unbilled, largely invisible labor of caregiving -- what she calls the "fourth shift" -- as a category of work in itself rather than an interruption to legal practice. Lomakin argues the judgment, triage, and decision-making under incomplete information it demands are the same skills that make a capable lawyer, and that naming that reality serves the profession better than absorbing it in silence.