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In our February newsletter, we noted the California Supreme Court was reviewing whether the ambiguous spendthrift protections of Probate Code sections 15300-15309 meant to impose an absolute cap of 25% against creditors. The Court has answered: "no." In its recent decision, styled Carmack v. Reynolds, the Court "hold[s] that the Probate Code does not impose such...Read More >>

If you've been involved in litigation, you likely are aware of the "CCP 998 offer." CCP § 998 is a statutory carrot-and-stick to entice parties to make reasonable offers, and to threaten penalties for rejecting reasonable offers. A 998 offer may be made any time up to 10 days before trial or arbitration. The objective...Read More >>

Leeman v. Adams Extract & Spice Co. (Cal. Ct. App. May 21, 2015) says no. As they routinely do, a Prop-65 toxic-chemicals-warning case settles for a trifling amount of penalties but a heaping portion of attorneys' fees - over $72,000, based on rates up to $895 per hour. Doesn't sit right with the trial judge, who...Read More >>

In the high-profile case City of San Jose v. Superior Court, the California high court recently held: "when a city employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the writings may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act." The Court explains: "The whole purpose of CPRA is to...Read More >>

Last month's decision in Westside Estate Agency, Inc. v. Randall (Cal. Ct. App. - Dec. 1, 2016) began its opinion saying: "We are all familiar with the phrase, "caveat emptor": Buyer beware. This case deals with its less renowned cousin, "caveat sectorem": Broker beware." Section 1624 of the Civil Code says that a real estate broker can...Read More >>

The one-year period to bring an action for malpractice typically begins after the lawyer last represented you, often easily identified as the date of formal withdrawal. But can it really be that easy? A recent California Court of Appeal decided it's not, holding instead the relationship ended when the attorney served the client with a...Read More >>

Distressed homeowners subject to lender "dual-tracking" do not need to wait until the end of a lawsuit to recover attorneys' fees if they are successful in obtaining a preliminary injunction, ruled the Third District Court of Appeal today in Monterossa v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. App. - June 12, 2014). Under a 2012 law, banks are prohibited...Read More >>

In a recent decision TVA obtained for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court held that a QPRT - generally irrevocable and commonly used in estate planning to hold personal residences - may nonetheless be revoked when the debtor retains an right to reacquire ownership of the residence. A former savings-and-loan banker, Robert...Read More >>

In today's litigious society, parties are quick to sue others but, due to the demands of life, defendants will oftentimes overlook the lawsuit. Doing so typically results in the entry of a judgment by default - meaning the defendant did not appear in the lawsuit to defend against the complaint. The plaintiff - now the...Read More >>

An attorney pursuing an appeal may be tempted to raise any and all arguments - however flimsy - before the appellate court, in an attempt to see what sticks. The Third Appellate District, however, urges attorneys to resist that temptation. In Leino v. Balkcom, Appellate Case No. C080950, a client and his attorney raised seventeen (!)...Read More >>

In a recently affirmed decision TVA obtained for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court held that a QPRT - generally irrevocable and commonly used in estate planning to hold personal residences - may nonetheless be revoked when the debtor retains a right to reacquire ownership of the residence. The View from Inside:QPRTs...Read More >>

Despite best efforts to reduce expectations to a written contract, one can rarely estimate with much accuracy the creative ways a complaining party will claim he has been damaged by an alleged breach. The textbook case from the 19th century in Hadley v. Baxendale arose when a smith delivered a crankshaft too late, and the miller sued...Read More >>

The high court recently published Park v. Trustees of the Cal. State Univ., reversing a split appellate-panel decision. The Court held plaintiff's retaliation claim could go forward and did not implicate protected conduct just because the trustees' decision involved protected communications. Skimming the decision, I was eager to find a discussion of the Court of Appeal's...Read More >>

Aman is handing out leaflets in the train station, an old Soviet joke has it, when he is stopped by an officer. Examining the leaflets, the officer discovers they are just blank pieces of paper. "What is the meaning of this?" the officer asks. "What is there to write?" the man replies. "It's so obvious!"...Read More >>

There are two kinds of developers: the pessimist, who sees a glass as half-empty, and the optimist, who sees the glass as four-fifths empty. Of California’s 163,000 square miles, just about 31,000 are developed. There’s a lot of opportunity to be had in California dirt. Literally, when it comes to a particular sort: just under...Read More >>

Governor Newsom recently signed SB 1146, which among other provides new Code Civ. Proc., § 599, which extends "any deadlines that have not already passed as of March 19, 2020" upon continuance or postponement of trial. That includes discovery, expert discovery, and summary judgment motions. It also provides at Code Civ. Proc., § 2035.310 that...Read More >>

If you have ever held a redacted document up to the light to see the redacted text, you know other attorneys are doing the same. In a redacted PDF, you might be able to copy and paste the obscured text. I've also seen redactions made with black boxes that could simply be moved aside. Here's...Read More >>

If you have ever held a redacted document up to the light to see the redacted text, you know other attorneys are doing the same. In a redacted PDF, you might be able to copy and paste the obscured text. I've also seen redactions made with black boxes that could simply be moved aside. Here's...Read More >>

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