Civil Procedure, California Supreme Court
California Supreme Court Review: March 2023
By Andrew S. Ong, James Nikraftar
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
Beyond Mifepristone: The potential implications of AHM v. FDA on FDA's authority
By Joshua Oyster, Douglas Hallward-Driemeier
The prospect of other judges in future cases similarly substituting their own judgment for FDA’s expert scientific determinati...
Many states have expanded their laws authorizing modifications to irrevocable trusts, including allowing adaptations for tax l...
California Supreme Court
Castellanos shows the futility of petitions for review
By David A. Carrillo, Stephen M. Duvernay
Our state high court exists to maintain consistency and clarity in the law – not to correct errors.
Juvenile dependency presents somewhat unique issues of mootness.
As with most things in the cannabis industry, brand protection is more challenging than it would be for a non-cannabis company.
Technology, ESG
Responsible AI as part of a company's ESG framework
By Susan H. Mac Cormac, Stephanie Sharron
How "Responsible AI" practices in combination with ESG frameworks can be applied both to mitigate risk and support a corporat...
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
What are people for? My first close encounter with ChatGPT
By John J. Kralik
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...
U.S. Supreme Court, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
The imperative need for an ethics code for Supreme Court justices
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Several steps should be taken to help ensure that there is both the perception and the reality of a Court complying with the h...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
A trail of decision-making breadcrumbs
By Alanna G. Clair, Shari L. Klevens
An attorney may have to defend or justify a decision that was made during the representation, even when those decisions includ...
Constitutional Law
42 U.S.C. § 1983 brings out the best and worst of our system
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
When the court finally interprets the constitutional tort system the 42nd Congress actually intended, the entire system will ...
Law Practice, Civil Procedure, Appellate Practice
A case study in what not to do when amending complaints
By Garret D. Murai
“When a complaint contains allegations that are fatal to a cause of action,” stated Justice M. Bruce Smith, “a plaintiff canno...
Data Privacy
Privacy laws that regulate cookies tend to crumble when implemented
By John A. Vogt, Ryan D. Ball
Privacy law remains unpredictable as courts continue to grapple with the application of decades-old privacy statutes to new tr...
Judges and Judiciary, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
The perils of politics
By David Rosenberg
Attorneys – as ambassadors of the courts, please work to help educate others on the importance of judicial independence and ke...
Technology
Artificial “intelligence” or Hal 9000 goes to law school
By Paul R. Kiesel, Jeffrey A. Koncius
There is no doubt that AI is an amazing tool with great promise. And while it is fun to ask for all sorts of things from these...
Entertainment & Sports, Contracts
The Tua contract was about more than his playing abilities
By Frank N. Darras
Were the Dolphins locking in Tua because he may have a career ending sickness or injury in the future and the team already pur...
Entertainment & Sports
Stream it Tonight! Marriage Story (2019)
By Michael Asimow, Paul Bergman
The movie amply illustrates the emotional wreckage that the adversarial divorce process leaves in its wake.
U.S. Supreme Court, Securities
Should SCOTUS cut securities fraud defendants some slack?
By Adam M. Apton, Devyn R. Glass
Without a clear mandate, regulations intended to safeguard the public should not be rolled back.
The ability to recognize that your opinion, your perspective, your taste, and your truth is not an objective verifiable and un...
The importance of recognizing subjective symptoms in traumatic brain injury cases: A perspective from a former defense attorne...
Military Law, Family
Child custody issues when a parent is a military veteran with PTSD
By Eileen C. Moore
A change to the California Family Code that requires attention be given to mental illnesses doesn't go into effect until Janua...
U.S. Supreme Court, Communications Law
Two recent cases confirm by their own admission even SCOTUS gets confused
By A. Marco Turk
During the lengthy arguments some of the justices struggled with what linked Twitter to the perpetrators of the terror attack,...
Many of our academic institutions have formal rules protecting free speech. But illiberal or craven administrators often refus...
Torts/Personal Injury, Civil Litigation
How debtors can avoid judgment and deny plaintiffs’ victory in court
By Brian S. Kabateck, Hugo Flores
When there is no insurance policy to collect from easily, a plaintiff must act quickly and decisively to ensure payment of the...
The ChatGPT moment is not the moment when we decide whether a computer can replace the legal profession. That debate is...
Labor/Employment, Government
The battle over Prop 22: A sign of things to come
By Douglas Yang
The tension between the direct democracy and representative democracy is acute, and the fault lines are only becoming more vis...
Tax
Wildfire victims wait years for settlements, then face IRS taxes
By Robert W. Wood
That grim fact can be an unpleasant surprise to fire victims and seems particularly unfair.
Legal Education, Appellate Practice
The appellate lawyer’s bookshelf
By Benjamin G. Shatz
Sure, a lot can be done with online services and the Internet, but aren’t certain books simply essential to have and to hold?
Ediscovery, Contracts, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Limitations on discovery and unconscionability in employment arbitration contracts
By Dariush Adli
One popular approach for challenging the validity of employment arbitration contracts is to characterize the discovery limitat...