California Appellate Report

Finally. I have long been a critic -- like many others -- of blanket 170.6 peremptory challenges. They're bad for all the usual reasons;...

This one took a while to resolve . I wonder how it would have turned out if it had taken longer. There's an oil company that wants to ke...

There were no published opinions yesterday, but there are some good ones today. I'm also in Iceland on a family vacation, so my posts ma...

This is another Proposition 65 (Safe Water Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986) case. As Justice Richman's opinion cogently...

Bigamy works ! Here, it saves the subsequent "spouse" -- who married her husband three years before he actually obtained a divorce...

I haven't been able to find the petition for rehearing that resulted in this amendment by the Court of Appeal, but it was apparently at ...

Yes, sometimes criminal plea negotiations do indeed take place -- both figuratively and sometimes literally -- on the courthouse steps, on t...

This is gorgeous. I'm always a little bit worried when a court decides to reject the positions of both parties in a case. There's a ...

Imagine that you're a landlord in Santa Monica and you've rented a place to an elderly tenant for a long time for $666/month. After ...

Woe is you. Appellants briefed the case and were in the 2/5 (Second District, Division 5). They were likely fairly happy with that; as you p...

There were no published opinions until late yesterday, but this one finally came out . It's a great opinion for anyone who wants to file...

It's surprising to me that the California Attorney General's Office decided to take an appeal in this one. California entitles certa...

"On January 7, 2025, the Department filed dependency petitions on behalf of then two-year-old O.M. and then one-year-old E.M. . . . [C]...

This may seem obvious, but if it's not, this opinion makes the underlying principle clear: Just because someone's going to eventual...

Three things about today's California Supreme Court opinion. First, Justice Groban's opinion. A portion of it struck me as the most...

I'll be honest that was difficult -- very  difficult -- for me to pay detailed attention to every word of this 269-page (!!) opinion .  ...

Make sure that the declarations that you submit from witnesses who do not speak English include the relevant translation certifications. Oth...

You can probably guess how Judge Lee's opinion, joined by Judge Tung, describes the ICE protests in Portland and the police response to ...

How much does it cost to have two San Diego County Deputy Sheriffs fly out to Texas and pick up a guy to fly back to San Diego? Apparently $...

Justice Buchanan's opinion seems entirely persuasive. A trial court can't just categorically deny pretrial diversion because someon...

Great opinion by Justice Franson . I might have not added this to the actual opinion, but in all honesty, here's what I was be thinking ...

Two people are convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Linda Canady. Both are sentenced to death. The California Supreme Court unanimous...

Here's a gorgeous opinion by Judge de Alba. Short, sweet and spot on. Target sells bedsheets that say that they're "100% cotto...

Twice in one week. First it was on Monday , and today, in an entirely different published opinion, we see it again . The common reality in b...

Defendant files a Racial Justice Act claim alleging that the Riverside District Attorney disproportionately seeks the death penalty against ...

Are some state court judges really granting summary judgment motions because the attorney's declaration (that attaches deposition transc...

It's bad. Then it gets worse. Then worse. Then even worse. Check out this opinion this afternoon from Justice Streeter. You can read th...

An ICE agent trying to have sex with an undercover cop pretending to be a 13 year old prostitute . Classic.

I was going to mention this opinion today simply as a reminder of a very common check scam. One to which, sadly, a nontrivial number of law...

You don't see many federal criminal appeals involving a misdemeanor. Typically you simply serve your sentence -- here, six months -- and...

It's a death penalty case. I totally understand why counsel for the defendant, who's out of peremptory challenges, wants this juror ...

I occasionally pursue old opinions for fun. This Supreme Court opinion -- Ex Parte Milligan -- was published exactly 160 years ago, to the ...

I wrote this back on the same day the amendment to the opinion came out on March 23, and today the Court of Appeal issues this . Today'...