GUEST COLUMNS
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
California's Motor Carriers of Property Permit Act may provide a new legal theory for holding delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Amazon directly liable for injuries caused by unpermitted couriers, regardless of Proposition 22's independent contractor protections.
DREAM Court's trauma-informed, collaborative approach brings together courts, attorneys, social workers and community partners to support children affected by commercial sexual exploitation and help families find safety, healing and long-term stability.
Monday, July 27, 2026
Businesses with customer-facing websites face growing litigation risk as plaintiffs increasingly combine ADA website accessibility claims with California privacy claims under CIPA, significantly increasing potential liability and making proactive compliance more important than ever.
Rinnai may have saved zero-NOx rules
for now, but the future of gas regulation will turn on how governments frame
the fight.
Friday, July 24, 2026
EB-2 national interest waiver petitions remain a valuable immigration pathway, but declining approval rates underscore the need for more specific, evidence-driven filings that clearly establish the petitioner's endeavor, qualifications and national benefit under the Dhanasar framework.
If you suffered a wildfire loss, you probably have a long and difficult road ahead, from finding a place to live to navigating insurance, legal and tax issues. Here are some topics to consider.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
California's public utilities must do more than check compliance boxes--they must embrace a culture of prevention and accountability before infrastructure failures turn into community disasters.
The lessons from California's mass fire litigation show that early evidence preservation, careful evaluation of compensation programs and attention to the real-world losses behind each claim can determine whether survivors receive full value.
Monday, July 20, 2026
California companies do business around the world. Their disputes should stay here.
Cal/OSHA's trench safety warning underscores a broader legal reality: organizations that fail to assess foreseeable risks before work begins may face liability for their own decisions, regardless of who performs the work.
Friday, July 17, 2026
Under the Privette doctrine's
"retained control" exception, a general contractor isn't liable for a
subcontractor's employee's ladder-fall injuries unless the contractor
affirmatively contributed to the unsafe condition, not merely permitted it to
exist.
Employment cases are often won or lost years before trial because everyday workplace decisions, manager communications and internal documentation create a hidden litigation record that ultimately determines whether a jury believes the employer's story.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
The Fifth Appellate District's decision in Cortina
v. North American Title Company reaffirms Duran while signaling more
exacting scrutiny of classwide proof, from the initial case management
conference through trial.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding West Virginia's ban on transgender girls participating in girls' sports continues its recent pattern of rejecting transgender rights claims while weakening the constitutional protections traditionally applied to sex discrimination.
Monday, July 13, 2026
Trump administration immigration policies are not merely enforcing the law--they are reshaping immigrant behavior in ways that reinforce longstanding stereotypes, creating the very conditions critics have long condemned.
California's new prior authorization law does more than limit insurers' use of prior authorization--it gives the Department of Health Care Services broad authority to determine when the practice is permitted.
Friday, July 10, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court's May decision in Montgomery
v. Caribe Transport II LLC has
renewed attention on a question long beneath
the surface of trucking litigation: What responsibility do freight brokers bear
when selecting the carriers that move freight across America's highways?
The Great Wealth Transfer is shifting estate planning from simply transferring assets to preparing future generations to govern, lead and preserve complex family enterprises through thoughtful succession planning.
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
A Los Angeles jury verdict
in K.G.M. v.
Meta Platforms, Inc. & YouTube LLC signals a potential breakthrough in
holding social media companies liable for alleged addictive design features and
harm to minors, testing the limits of Section 230 immunity.
California family courts are increasingly being asked to resolve custody disputes that span countries, languages and cultures-- resulting in custody arrangements fundamentally different from those of past decades.
Monday, July 6, 2026
A look at how judicial independence has
enabled courts to protect -- and, at times, fail to protect -- constitutional
equality, from Yick Wo and Brown to Korematsu and Dred
Scott.
The proposed California ethics rules would incorporate artificial intelligence into existing professional conduct rules, but questions remain whether those standards adequately address autonomous "agentic AI" systems that perform complex legal tasks with minimal human oversight.
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
As executive departures become more frequent, employers must be prepared to address the legal and business risks that can follow, from protecting trade secrets to managing key-person succession.
As employers rely on AI to make employment decisions, they may still be held liable when automated systems produce discriminatory results--even if the technology is supplied by a third-party vendor.
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David Huerta
David Huerta
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NEWS
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General News
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 |
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| Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara approved a settlement resolving State Farm's emergency rate case, making revised increases permanent, ordering refunds with interest and ending, for now, the insurer's request for larger homeowners' premium hikes. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 |
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| Three California couples allege a fertility clinic and industrial gas supplier destroyed their embryos after an incubator was connected to a tank containing the wrong gas mixture. The lawsuit also claims the clinic later sought liability waivers and non-disparagement agreements from affected patients. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 |
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| While it's obvious to users that chatbots keep a record of whatever they explicitly say to them in their questions and requests, what's less clear are the inferences drawn about their behavior from those conversations. | |
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General News
Monday, July 27, 2026 |
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| It is not clear if vibecoding is breathing new life into the App Store or just cluttering it. | |
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General News
Monday, July 27, 2026 |
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| A plaintiff verdict followed by another bellwether's dismissal without payment illustrates the strategic maneuvering behind Los Angeles' social media addiction litigation, observers say, while key appellate issues remain unresolved. | |
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General News
Monday, July 27, 2026 |
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| A federal judge questioned DraftKings' argument that players suffered no economic injury from participating in allegedly illegal daily fantasy sports contests, suggesting the plaintiffs may have grounds to seek an injunction barring the games in California. | |
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General News
Friday, July 24, 2026 |
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| Google on Tuesday released three new artificial intelligence models. | |
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General News
Friday, July 24, 2026 |
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| The second Los Angeles social media addiction bellwether trial ended before jury selection after the Florida minor voluntarily dismissed his remaining claims against Meta. | |
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General News
Friday, July 24, 2026 |
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| A proposed nationwide class action filed in federal court in Santa Ana accuses Taco Bell and Taylor Farms of selling Cyclospora-contaminated lettuce, seeking refunds for consumers who purchased affected products rather than personal injury damages. The suit is the first arising from the multistate outbreak to name both companies as defendants. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 |
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| Every day, Mercor, a startup that sells training data to artificial intelligence companies, pays 30,000 contractors more than $4 million to help make their jobs, and those of their colleagues, obsolete. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 |
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| Attorneys told a Los Angeles judge they have tentatively agreed to pursue mediation over disputed abuse settlement overlaps, delaying a ruling on whether discovery into the county's handling of 28 claimants should proceed. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 |
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| Former federal prosecutors say the Justice Department's decision to dismiss economic espionage charges against Chinese steelmaker Pangang Group after trial had begun is an exceptionally rare move, suggesting prosecutors typically identify fatal weaknesses long before opening statements. | |
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General News
Monday, July 20, 2026 |
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| Federal complaint claims families were abruptly locked out, denied replacement shelter and left in extreme heat, | |
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General News
Monday, July 20, 2026 |
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| The deal resolves claims that Northrop Grumman contaminated neighborhoods in Canoga Park and Winnetka with toxic chemicals. | |
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General News
Monday, July 20, 2026 |
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| EV sales have slumped in the United States after Congress and President Donald Trump ended, in the fall, a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for people who bought or leased one. But there are still not enough chargers to serve all the EVs on American roads, industry executives say. | |
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General News
Friday, July 17, 2026 |
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| When will they see justice? | |
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General News
Friday, July 17, 2026 |
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| Twenty-six Meta employees have sued the company, alleging it used artificial intelligence to help select workers for layoffs in a way that disproportionately targeted pregnant employees, workers with disabilities and those who took protected leave. Meta denies that AI made the termination decisions. | |
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General News
Friday, July 17, 2026 |
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| A federal judge has related three antitrust lawsuits challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., effectively transferring a multistate enforcement action to the judge already overseeing two private suits and rendering moot a bid to recuse another judge from the case. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 |
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| Whether you own or rent, knowing how to shut off your power and your pipes -- and then turn them back on -- is a matter of safety and practicality, especially in an emergency. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 |
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| The State Bar reached a settlement with its former bar exam vendor, securing $5.25 million and cancellation of a $1.36 million invoice to resolve claims arising from the botched February 2025 California Bar Exam. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 |
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| New State Bar Court Judge Alison R. Worthington set a 35-day trial schedule and imposed strict case-management procedures Monday in the consolidated disciplinary prosecution of four Downtown L.A. Law Group attorneys. | |
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General News
Monday, July 13, 2026 |
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| A unanimous California Supreme Court ruled that county-created sheriff oversight entities have the authority to subpoena records when investigating complaints, affirming Sonoma County's civilian oversight office and strengthening similar agencies' investigative powers statewide. | |
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General News
Monday, July 13, 2026 |
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| A federal judge found the University of San Francisco negligently failed to preserve a former athletic administrator's notebooks, allowing former baseball players suing over alleged sexual misconduct by coaches to present evidence of the missing records at trial while rejecting harsher sanctions against the university. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 |
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| Federal prosecutors have agreed to dismiss the misdemeanor obstruction case against labor leader David Huerta, a move legal experts say reflects the government's difficulty proving criminal obstruction in the context of protected protest activity and could influence similar pending case | |
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General News
Monday, July 27, 2026 |
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| The lawsuit challenges United Water Conservation District's operation, maintenance and water diversions at the Vern Freeman Dam on the Santa Clara River. The case has remained in federal court while U.S. District Judge David O. Carter presided over a related, decade-long Endangered Species Act action involving the same dam. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 |
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| Lawsuits in several states including California were filed last week after the FDA linked recalled iceberg lettuce to a multistate Cyclospora outbreak. The agency said Sunday that was a false positive. | |
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General News
Monday, July 20, 2026 |
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| The consortium building LAX's delayed Automated People Mover claims airport officials deliberately prolonged construction to avoid a $115 million payment, contradicting a civil grand jury's findings that both sides contributed. | |
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General News
Friday, July 17, 2026 |
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| A Los Angeles judge allowed Palisades Fire plaintiffs to amend claims against SoCalGas and Los Angeles County while taking under submission a conservation authority's challenge to vegetation management allegations. | |
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General News
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 |
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| Antitrust experts cited the comparatively low percentage of the companies' dominance, resistance of state attorneys general lawsuits without federal support, and judicial resistance to blocking mergers as hurdles for California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other states. | |
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General News
Monday, July 13, 2026 |
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| White-collar defense attorney Nina Marino, the incoming chair of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section, said preserving judicial independence, protecting the rule of law and fostering cooperation among prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges will be her top priorities. | |