California Appellate Report

When they talk about getting off on a technicality, this is what they mean . Though here, it's not the constable who's blundered. ...

DNA evidence is incredibly helpful.  Both to persuade a jury to convict and, occasionally, to exonerate. Usually, DNA evidence is just a s...

See?  I'm not always wrong. Or at least, when I say something , other -- wiser -- people occasionally come to agree with me . Of cou...

Yes.  It's true.  Plaintiff is claiming that he received too much medical treatment while in prison. The Court of Appeal nonetheless ...

Two things are surprising about this case .  I'll mention them very briefly.  Without elaboration. First, it's a cocaine sentencin...

Not the most sympathetic defendant in the universe .  Not surprising that his convictions are affirmed. At all.

This is a staggering devotion of resources -- really quite shocking -- devoted to fighting about whether Hoover High School (here in San Di...

I'll readily admit that I can only partially follow the legal analysis in this opinion .  Not that it's wrong.  Not that it's co...

You don't see a huge number of attorney fee awards imposed against a party that files an anti-SLAPP motion.  It's also unusual to s...

Judge Gould does his best Kozinski impression .  Which made me chuckle out loud: "At around 2:20 a.m. on a spring night, two police o...

You think your divorce proceedings were bad?  Listen to this one , which involves San Diego residents Tracy Hoogenberg and Buford Keith Simm...

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took a real beating from the Ninth Circuit today.  A couple of opinions were published that had profess...

Courts and commentators occasionally say that resort to legislative history is a crock.  (You listening, Justice Scalia?)  For those doubter...

I agree with every single word Judge Milan Smith utters in this opinion .  Every.  Single.  Word. It's the battle of the Michelles.  A...

One topic we discuss in my Law of Love class is incest.  We talk about the normative rules -- should (certain types of) incest be constituti...

I understand why Justice Aaron elected to decide this appeal even though the parties settled the case before oral argument.  After all, she...

I'm not a huge fan of the appellate disentitlement doctrine.  Either in how it's articulated or, in particular, how it's practic...

This case should be required reading for anyone who drives .  Which is to say, virtually everyone. Admittedly, I'm biased.  I'll s...

This seems all very academic to me . That's not necessarily a slam.  I like opinions that go into detail, and that discuss at a low le...

What do you do if you're a student at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the Department of Education fails to give you a federally s...