California Appellate Report

The Court of Appeal is right, and Legal Aid is wrong . It's technically "income" to you even if you don't get the money. S...

The opinion isn't really about this part, but I was struck by the final words of this sentence, which begins the Court of Appeal's s...

This case is unusual if only because you usually don't see someone get sentenced to federal prison for trying to smuggle someone into  ...

This (alleged) strategy might perhaps work for a while, but there's a serious risk of it all crashing down on you at some point. Backgro...

The Ninth Circuit's panel opinion was in 2022 , with Judge Miller filing a partial dissent. Judge Miller voted to grant panel rehearing ...

I'm not one of those people who believe that the federal government was behind 9/11 or that the "deep state" (and/or Illuminat...

I'm certain that there are many people who would categorically agree with Justice Poochigian when he says in this opinion : "The in...

Read this opinion -- or at least the first dozen pages or so -- and see whether you think the defendant: (A) Wouldn't have done the sam...

This is a pretty good opinion to figure out where you generally stand on the resentencing provisions of Section 1172.6, which "amend[e...

If I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, unless there's a surprising panel draw, the era of being able to file an interlocutory appe...

I'm totally having my students read this opinion from the Court of Appeal in my "Law of Surfing" class. Assuming, arguendo, t...

I understand and appreciate that, on the high seas, the United States can exercise jurisdiction over "stateless" vessels. So if, f...

This is yet another case where someone dies on a jet ski; in this case, in South Lake Tahoe. Just like the jet ski case I discussed back in...

Two days ago , I somewhat critiqued Judge Nelson's analysis of when circuit precedent is sufficiently inconsistent with a subsequent Sup...

Does the trial court here know something that I don't ? Ms. Tornai gets into an auto accident with someone with a $25,000 insurance poli...

I do not have strong qualms about the merits of this opinion . The trial court included as cots various fees for depositions that, for one r...

Judge Ryan Nelson is right on the merits , but pulls a neat little doctrinal trick that's probably a bit too slick for my tastes. Plaint...

"Sarmiento was raised by her mother and stepfather. Between the ages of five and eight, along with a group of other children, she was s...

Back in the old days, when you saw a complaint against a railroad, it was for the typical stuff: a railway worker got injured, someone got h...

Judge Friedland begins the new year with somewhat of a bang . She generally doesn't like written dissents from the denial of rehearing e...