GUEST COLUMNS
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Leaving California may not end California tax obligations for residents with stock options or other equity compensation.
The 9th Circuit's Ding decision allows
employees who discover a viable sexual harassment claim after arbitration
begins to invoke the EFAA and move their case to court, while limiting that
option to circumstances where the claim was not previously known or withheld.
Monday, August 31, 2026
AI has made it easier than ever to imitate a celebrity. A four-step strategy can give celebrities and their families the best chance of maintaining control over their identities.
Population, industrial and trucking growth are converging to make the Inland Empire an increasingly consequential center for civil litigation in California.
Friday, August 28, 2026
Age alone is not enough to take away an elderly driver's license, but California has safeguards to determine when someone should be reexamined--or not driving at all.
The Court of Appeal's decision in People v. Cruz improperly expands resentencing relief by eliminating enhancements based on conduct already admitted or proved, giving defendants an unwarranted sentencing windfall and undermining culpability-based punishment.
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
California's 2023 partition law was well intentioned, but it overlooked how California property law actually works. A 2026 update can fix those oversights and create a more perfect partition.
Early court rulings are divided over whether AI-generated litigation materials are protected by privilege or the work-product doctrine, while judges are increasingly restricting the use of public AI tools in discovery over confidentiality and data privacy concerns.
Monday, August 24, 2026
With NIL valuations and endorsements influencing every stakeholder in college sports--from the players and coaches to a school's administration--it's time to embrace the new reality and help student-athletes make informed decisions or step aside.
Comet's $40 million trade secret verdict unraveled on appeal, illustrating how midtrial claim changes, jury instructions, and an all-or-nothing damages strategy combined to turn "remarkable" evidence of misappropriation into reversible error.
Friday, August 21, 2026
San Francisco's expanded Fair Chance Ordinance prohibits employers from basing adverse employment decisions on out-of-state convictions or unresolved arrests for conduct lawful in California in four categories.
A recent debate over California's Proposition 45 has raised a surprisingly basic question: "Are data centers eligible for the measure's streamlined review process?"
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
ICE's planned use of electric-shock G.L.O.V.E. devices raises serious legal and accountability questions about whether deploying them against protesters can satisfy constitutional use-of-force standards without clearer rules, stronger justification and meaningful oversight.
As courts grapple with whether algorithmically generated feeds are "expressive," the answer may determine the extent of social media platforms' First Amendment rights in the age of AI.
Monday, August 17, 2026
California employers and unions can obtain workplace violence restraining orders quickly, yet few use them. Understanding the streamlined process can help protect employees from recurring threats, violence and harassment.
AT&T's effort to retire traditional landline service in California presents a classic federalism dispute over the boundary between federal authority and state regulation of essential communications infrastructure.
Friday, August 14, 2026
Workplace Violence Restraining Orders under CCP ยง 527.8 offer retailers a far more effective way to stop recurring violence, threats and harassment than toothless trespass warnings, with more than 90% of respondents complying once served.
The Supreme Court's decision in Chatrie v. United States holds that geofence warrants seeking Google location data constitute Fourth Amendment searches, requiring California law enforcement to satisfy probable cause and particularity when using the increasingly common investigative tool.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Two verdicts, one summer: What Byrne v. Ameris Bank and Glick v. City of Los Angeles should teach every employment lawyer, mediator and GC.
AI is reshaping legal practice, but attorneys must use it competently and ethically to avoid becoming the next cautionary headline.
Monday, August 10, 2026
When a driverless car breaks the law in California, the violation now goes to the manufacturer's regulator instead of to a driver. That works until someone dies, because homicide still requires a mind, and the law has spent two thousand years looking for one.
The Ninth Circuit's Theis decision clarifies public employees' workplace speech protections, holding that when employees speak as part of their jobs, employers -- not employees -- control the message.
Friday, August 7, 2026
IRS Form 4669 serves a legitimate purpose in worker-classification disputes but requiring it in employment settlements may be both inappropriate and premature.
Purpose-built AI tools that catch curable defects before filing and flag issues during court review--from pleadings and default judgments to class and PAGA settlements--could be developed to help alleviate the added caseload pressure AI itself is expected to create.
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
How rideshare screening actually works, when a driver's criminal record matters and what a passenger injured by an Uber driver has to prove in a California negligence case.
You thought there'd be no math?!
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U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen
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NEWS
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General News
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 |
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| Israel Claustro, who resigned from the bench and is permanently barred from judicial office, received one year of probation and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty to felony mail fraud. | |
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General News
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 |
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| Welcome back from vacation! Someone may have stolen your home. That isn't precisely what the paper letter from PNC Bank, my mortgage servicer, said, but it was close. | |
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General News
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 |
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| SB 690 would restrict private claims involving websites and apps under California's pen register law while leaving other CIPA causes of action intact. | |
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General News
Monday, August 31, 2026 |
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| Jessica Mah and Andrea Barrica accuse the litigation powerhouse of concealing a conflict and running up nearly $2 million in fees, days after Playboy filed a separate malpractice action over another alleged client conflict. | |
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General News
Monday, August 31, 2026 |
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| Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, is loudly warning that artificial intelligence poses a grave threat to jobs and human life, and that urgently addressing the risks should be "the world's top priority." | |
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General News
Friday, August 28, 2026 |
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| Across Los Angeles, at festivals, botanical gardens and even the beach, the heat is the hottest topic. | |
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General News
Friday, August 28, 2026 |
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| Judge Consuelo B. Marshall took dueling spoliation motions under submission over missing server logs that could have shown how frequently the commercial real estate rivals accessed each other's websites. | |
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General News
Friday, August 28, 2026 |
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| AB 2305, backed by plaintiffs' attorneys, heads to Newsom's desk after unanimous votes in both chambers. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 |
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| Newsom signs immigration-worker privacy bill, setting up First Amendment fight. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 |
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| Nearly everything Anna Wallack and Lindquist McDonough sell in their boutiques is made by a community of designers who share a commitment to making things by hand, remaining independent and supporting one another. Together, they are shaping the way we shop and dress. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 |
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| Epic Games says newly discovered accounts showing a minor continued playing Fortnite after disaffirming its user agreement require reconsideration of a judge's refusal to compel arbitration. | |
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General News
Monday, August 24, 2026 |
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| When she bought a sliver of land on the side of Highway 1 in Bodega Bay, California, Qing Tang-Oxley didn't fully understand how difficult it would be to build a house on the steep site, which dropped sharply to the water. But there were signs. | |
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General News
Monday, August 24, 2026 |
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| Jacob Emrani is urging a Los Angeles federal judge to reconsider allowing Uber's racketeering claims to proceed, citing a new ruling in New York that dismissed a similar RICO case against personal injury lawyers and medical providers. | |
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General News
Monday, August 24, 2026 |
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| Measures would protect media access to public proceedings, restrict secret immunity and anonymity agreements and curb abusive litigation against domestic violence victims | |
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General News
Friday, August 21, 2026 |
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| As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last summer, Congress rewrote the rules for certain student loans. | |
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General News
Friday, August 21, 2026 |
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| A 2-1 9th Circuit panel allowed former Structure Therapeutics CFO Ding Ding to leave arbitration for court after discovering evidence supporting a sex-based harassment claim, with Judge Johnnie Rawlinson sharply dissenting. | |
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General News
Friday, August 21, 2026 |
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| U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall rejected the defendants' efforts to overturn or reduce the verdict but declined Hyundai Motor's request to increase the award. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 |
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| The bond market is a global giant, with more than $58 trillion in assets in the United States alone. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 |
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| A federal judge questioned limits on Midjourney's discovery into entertainment studios' AI development, suggesting their use of copyrighted works could be relevant to licensing markets and Midjourney's fair-use defense. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 |
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| Meta and 29 state attorneys general are battling over Section 230 jury instructions before opening statements Tuesday in a trial alleging illegal data collection and deceptive practices targeting young users. | |
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General News
Monday, August 17, 2026 |
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| The proliferation of Flock cameras, a brand of automated license plate readers that employ artificial intelligence to identify and track vehicles, has divided the public and rattled civil liberties watchdogs. | |
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General News
Monday, August 17, 2026 |
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| A Los Angeles judge set the first trial over FAIR Plan's handling of smoke-damage claims from the 2025 wildfires for October 2027 and allowed individualized discovery for all 21 bellwether households. | |
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General News
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 |
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| Sony and Warner music publishers allege Anthropic downloaded copyrighted lyrics from pirate libraries to train its Claude AI models and continues to infringe their works through Claude's output. | |
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General News
Monday, August 31, 2026 |
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| U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter ordered the parties to propose narrowly tailored relief in a First Amendment challenge to UC's harassment policies after expressing frustration with their first attempt to reach common ground. | |
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General News
Friday, August 28, 2026 |
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| The deal ends a multistate trial over alleged harms to young users and requires Meta to impose time limits, nighttime restrictions and age verification on Facebook and Instagram. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 |
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| A divided 5th District Court of Appeal rejected a compelled-speech challenge to the city's renaming of a street for Cesar Chavez, even though Fresno has since restored the street's former name following allegations against the labor leader. | |
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General News
Monday, August 24, 2026 |
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| A San Francisco judge ordered an advertiser's antitrust claims against Google to arbitration, finding the requested injunction primarily benefits commercial advertisers rather than the general public. | |
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General News
Friday, August 21, 2026 |
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| The 105-page order kept alive claims under the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and theories of negligence, contract, fiduciary duty, implied covenant and due process. | |
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General News
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 |
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| A proposed nationwide Johnson & Johnson talc settlement could resolve most California ovarian cancer claims, though opt-outs and excluded plaintiffs could keep portions of the coordinated Los Angeles litigation alive. | |
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General News
Monday, August 17, 2026 |
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| A Los Angeles judge rejected Ray J's anti-SLAPP bid against Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, finding a jury could conclude his racketeering accusations were defamatory and that his reliance on ChatGPT did not establish a reasonable basis for believing they had violated federal law. | |