Mere days after SCOTUS enjoins universal injunctions, judges find other way to afford “complete relief.” A big one: The Administrative Procedure Act allows courts to enjoin agency actions. Also: What if a defendant does not want a co-defendant dismissed and relieved of liability? The California Supreme Court says co-defendants can oppose each other’s MSJs in R&D...
No more nationwide injunctions, SCOTUS says Justice Barrett writing for the 6-3 majority in Trump v. CASA. District courts must limit their injunctions to the “case or controversy” before it. Justices Sotomayor and Jackson each wrote dissents urging that more judicial power was needed to check the executive. In response, Justice Barrett says that exceeding...
SCOTUS spent two and a half hours hearing oral argument on Friday in the birthright-citizenship cases consolidated in Trump v. CASA—not about birthright citizenship, but about whether district courts should be issuing nationwide injunctions. Many justices, and commentators on both sides, have criticized nationwide injunctions as a judicial incursion into executive policymaking in both Republican...
In November 2022, the Court of Appeal affirmed an injunction of the San Diego Unified School District’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate in Let Them Choose v. San Diego Unified Sch. Dist. (D4d1 Nov. 22, 2022 No. D079906). The court held that a school district could not require students over 15 years old to receive Covid vaccinations...
There is a high frustration quotient in defending against judgment enforcement. There is supposed to be an automatic stay of orders on appeal, but in practice this is wishful thinking. So you may have to do what the aggrieved party did in Merritt v. Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC (D6 Aug. 11, 2022 No. H048463) 2022...
Nosing out whether an order is appealable can be difficult. But we know injunctions are appealable because they are listed explicitly in Code of Civil Procedure section 904.1, the appealability statute. But a preliminary injunction issued by an arbitrator is not. They are not a final “award,” and thus not appealable. That is the holding...
Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California made national news when he ordered Los Angeles to put up $1 billion to address its homelessness crisis. But that order was based on claims the plaintiffs did not allege, relief the plaintiffs did not request, and evidence the plaintiffs did not adduce. While trial...
The California Supreme Court in *Daly v. San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors* (Aug. 9, 2021) ___ Cal.5th ___ has decided one particular area of the law is unclear and needs "reexamination." When a trial court grants an injunction, and the injunction is appealed, does the injunction still apply during the appeal? When the Board of...
Did you know that, when you appeal a mandatory preliminary injunction, the injunction is automatically stayed? An appeal in that instance can be very powerful. But when is an injunction truly mandatory? Whether an appeal is mandatory or prohibitory can be very tricky to determine. Getting it wrong can be devastating, as the appellant learned...
TVA's Tim Kowal is a co-host of the California Appellate Law Podcast. This episode discusses cases and procedures in appealing preliminary injunctions. Listen here. Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography.Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography . Cases mentioned in this episode ABBA Rubber Co. v. Seaquist (1991) 235 Cal.App.3d 1 Abbott Laboratories v. The Superior Court (2018)...
Does your office have a blank 170.6 form ready to go for a certain judge? Stop doing that. A 170.6 peremptory challenge is no longer automatic: the California Supreme Court now authorizes courts to look behind your 170.6. The touchstone is whether your 170.6 is based on a genuine belief of prejudice—or mere grievance. But...
Justice Kagan has more words about the emergency docket aka shadow docket. This one is about the 9th Circuit panel injunction of California's law requiring school officials not to share with parents when their children present as trans. The Supreme Court keeps the injunction in effect. And on the fee award front, big firms don't...
Three paradoxes feature in this episode: Paradox 1: You must disclose a bankruptcy stay to the Court of Appeal. What about a bankruptcy that does not create a stay? Answer: Yes, the disclose-bk-stay rule also means disclose a bk non-stay. Paradox 2: Deadbeat dad owes $500k. He settles and agrees to pay $250k. How much...
In Part 2 of our conversation with Michael Shipley, Tim and Jeff dig into the real-world fallout of California's no-horizontal-stare-decisis rule — and the structural fix Shipley has been developing to address it.Shipley walks Tim and Jeff through his proposed "mini-en banc" transfer mechanism — a way for the California Supreme Court to empower a...
Appealing in the 9th Circuit? Your deadline is 30 days. But sometimes the court makes certain rulings that are appealable but without a formal order—and that’s where FRCP 58 comes in, which says that those rulings are not deemed “entered,” and so the 30-day appeal deadline doesn’t yet run, until 150 days later. But in...
The Supreme Court faulted the district judge in A.A.R.P. v. Trump for refusing to grant the Venezuelan alleged Tren de Aragua members’ injunction. But on remand, Judge Ho comes to the judge’s defense: after all, the judge only had 42 minutes’ notice. And to conclude that the judge had had some 14 hours, Judge Ho...
Motion-in-limine orders, like other evidentiary rulings, are not appealable. But there is one case, Brand v. 20th Century Insurance Company/21st Century Insurance Company (2004) 124 Cal.App.4th 594, where the excluded expert was a party’s former attorney and disqualified on that basis. And attorney-disqualification orders are appealable as collateral orders. But when the same thing happened recently...
Here is our 2024 roundup, and in exchange we have a request for suggestions for 2025 content. If you are an attorney, what content do you prefer? Check out the poll. Now here’s the roundup of updates for 2025: 📅 MSJ Deadlines Are Updated: Remember 81-20-11. With the MSJ hearing as the target, motions must...
A ransomware attack hit the Los Angeles County Superior Court in July 2024, affecting e-filing services. Did you miss a filing deadline because of this? We discuss two Rules of Court that could help. We also cover: Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed. Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter...
Every day as an appeals lawyer brings new puzzles. But some puzzles repeat. So in this episode, we compile the top 10 tips dispensed regularly to trial attorneys working in family court. They include: 👉 Know your appealable issues—appeal now, or lose it forever! 👉 Request a statement of decision. Don’t need to, you say?...
The U.S. Supreme Court provides awaited guidance on public officials’ use of social media, and the California Supreme Court gives a cautionary tale about waiving the right to a jury trial. Jeff and I discuss: Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed. Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and...
The 9th Circuit is taking up the ostensible narrow issue of appealability of anti-SLAPP orders. But it could be broader. Much broader. If the court decides anti-SLAPPs are procedural rather than substantive, says Cory Webster, that would mean no more anti-SLAPP motions in federal court. We also discuss that recent panel that departed from an...
One big limitation in the 9th Circuit is that a three-judge panel is absolutely bound by a prior panel decision. Just see, for example, the recent panel decision in Martinez v. ZoomInfo Techs.: even though a majority of the panel disagreed with the precedent that anti-SLAPP denials are appealable, they had to go along with the precedent...
California law now provides for initial discovery disclosures. Get a template handy for your upcoming cases. And watch out for the new minimum $1,000 sanction for discovery misconduct. And some recent cases: Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed. Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page....
San Francisco—responding to a surge in homelessness—enacted time-and-place anti-vagrancy ordinances restricting sleeping in public places. But the district court enjoined the laws, and in Coal. On Homelessness v. City of San Francisco, No. 23-15087 (9th Cir. 2024), the 9th Circuit affirmed. Following two recent 9th Circuit cases, the court held that the city violated the...
Looking back on the year’s 50 episodes, we discuss some of our best guests, including our 9th Circuit correspondent, Cory Webster, our legal-writing correspondent, Ryan McCarl, our legal-movie correspondent, Gary Wax, and our inspirational public-interest appellate lawyers Chris Schandevel and Carl Cecere. There’s our legal-citation-parenthetical maverick Jack Metzler. And then there are our legal scholars...
Like many cities with neighborhoods unhappy with short-term rentals, Rancho Mirage issued a ban on the practice. In this suit by a group of short-term rental owners, Vacation Rental Owners & Neighbors of Rancho Mirage v. City of Rancho Mirage (D4d2 Dec. 15, 2023 No. E078784) [nonpub. opn.], the trial court issued a preliminary injunction...
Prof. Eugene Volokh joined us to discuss restraining orders, how many of them violate the First Amendment as unlawful prior restraints, and how you can spot the First Amendment problems. The purpose of a restraining orders is to get a person to stop harassing you, but “harassment” can be a pretty vague term—and the same...
After plaintiff obtained a preliminary injunction preventing defendant pet stores from selling puppies, the legislature passed a law barring the retail sale of puppies. Having got what it came for, plaintiff dismissed the action without prejudice. The court awarded the successful plaintiffs over $46,000 in attorneys' fees. But to the plaintiffs’ chagrin, the award was...
Turns out you CAN shout “fire” in a crowded theater, and lots of other lies besides—unless the government meets a heavy burden, that is. The author of four books and more than 20 academic articles, First Amendment scholar and Naval Academy associate professor Jeff Kosseff makes the case for the freedom to speak freely, and...
