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After entering a visitation order for great-grandparents, the court entered another order modifying it. The mother appealed from the modification. The court in Rodriguez v. Rodriguez (D5 Feb. 9, 2024 No. F086277) [nonpub. opn.] held that, yes, the modification was appealable, but the issues the mother was challenging were in the first order. And the...Read More >>

Next time your opposing counsel takes issue with something you say, don’t be surprised to find a complaint in the next filing citing to rule 8.3 of the Rules of Professional Conduct—the new “snitch rule.” There are about a dozen terms of legal art in the snitch rule, so we asked Judge Meredith Jury (Ret.)...Read More >>

A D.C. jury found climate scientist Michael Mann was not harmed by criticism that Penn State had whitewashed its investigation of his provocative “hockey stick” graph, which used proxy data such as tree rings to depict global temperatures holding steady for hundreds of years before spiking sharply in the 1800s. The jury awarded only $1...Read More >>

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “State wins a writ excusing it from disclosing whether its private research firm engaged in animal cruelty.” It is about how the Court of Appeal has recently issued two writs on discovery issues—which appellate courts typically loathe. There are two things in common between the discovery writ in Regents...Read More >>

Failing to request a statement of decision. Misunderstanding what “substantial evidence” means. Preparing an incomplete appellate record. Yes, these mistakes will lose you your appeal. But they can also get you sanctioned. The appellant’s counsel in Mandir, Inc. v. Tiwari (D4d3 Mar. 27, 2023 No. G060437) (nonpub. opn.) got sanctioned nearly $50,000 for pursuing a...Read More >>

Just a few years out of law school, Kyle O’Malley won a landmark case in the Supreme Court of California. The employer’s screening service in *Raines v. US Healthworks Medical Group*, 15 Cal.5th 268 (2023) used a generic questionnaire asking about menstrual cycles, hemorrhoids, hair loss, and all sorts of fool questions not tailored to...Read More >>

Wealth, class, and high office don’t buy a lot of respect these days, but people listen if you’ve got some extra letters hung on the end of your name as scientists do. So climate scientist Michael E. Mann, Ph.D, sued for defamation when Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn called his “hockey stick” graph the product...Read More >>

An anti-SLAPP motion is a species of motion to strike. So some authorities have held that this means California Rules of Court, rule 3.1322 applies, requiring that the challenged allegations be quoted chapter and verse. (Chop Won Park v. Nazari (D2d5 Jul. 25, 2023 No. B320483).) But District Three disagreed in the published portion of...Read More >>

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...Read More >>

Russell Lynwood Austin murdered his pregnant ex-girlfriend in her apartment with her two-year-old present. Austin slit her throat so violently that he nearly decapitated her. Austin then fled, leaving her bloody body, and her dying fetus, with the naked two-year-old child. The D.A. charged Austin with double-homicide and sought the death penalty. But Austin is...Read More >>

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “Restraining Order Against an Attorney Must Be Based on Multiple Instances of Non-Litigation Conduct.” This is about Hansen v. Volkov (D2d7 Sep. 18, 2023) No. B311524 (cert. for pub.), where an attorney got a restraining order against her opposing counsel in a family law case. But the Court of...Read More >>

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...Read More >>

The Supreme Court has granted cert on whether prosecuting a homeless sidewalk-camper is cruel and unusual punishment. And the 9th Circuit has granted en banc review whether anti-SLAPP denials are appealable. Also: You are doing MSJ separate statements wrong (maybe). There are two schools of thought, and the Court of Appeal in a partially published...Read More >>

The FBI, growing frustrated in an investigation into a company that furnishes private lockboxes, got a warrant to search entire “nests” of lockboxes. Including lockboxes held by perfectly law-abiding plaintiffs, which are the subject of Snitko v. United States, No. 22-56050 (9th Cir. Jan. 23, 2024). When the FBI got the warrant, they told the...Read More >>

There has been a steady drumbeat to revisit the 9th Circuit’s precedent making anti-SLAPP orders appealable. Anti-SLAPP orders are similar to orders on motions to dismiss or for summary judgment, but they invoke specific state-law procedures—procedures that do not quite track with federal rule 12(b) or rule 56. And federal courts do not apply state...Read More >>

The 9th Circuit was bound by its trademark precedent holding an exception to the Lanham Act for expressive works, which was why in Punchbowl, Inc. v. AJ Press, LLC, No. 21-55881 (9th Cir. Jan. 12, 2024) it affirmed a summary judgment against plaintiff greeting-card maker in favor of a news website—both going by the name...Read More >>

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....Read More >>

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...Read More >>

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “Arbitrator reversed for basing credibility on use of interpreter.” The article is about FCM Invs. v. Grove Pham, LLC (D4d1 Oct. 17, 2023) No. D080801. The arbitrator had ruled against the appellant based on a credibility determination, noting that “Mrs. Pham's use of an interpreter appeared to the Arbitrator...Read More >>

Costco charged a shopper with theft for putting a $117 package of Gillette razors underneath a big bag of dog food. The shopper sued for malicious prosecution, but the trial court granted Cosco’s anti-SLAPP, and the panel majority in Gylfie v. Costco Wholesale Corp. (D2d5 Dec. 27, 2023 No. B320694 [nonpub. opn.] affirmed. Making a...Read More >>

Yisrael Gelb focuses his appellate practice on helping plaintiff lawyers beat summary judgment. We talk about some of his approaches to successfully opposing summary judgment motions, including: We also discuss Yisrael’s new podcast for plaintiffs’ attorneys, going by the provocative title, “The Ambulance Chasers.”   Yisrael Gelb’s biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed. Appellate Specialist...Read More >>

Are orders on motions to enforce settlement agreements appealable? They are not expressly listed in the appealability statute. But appellate courts often treat them as functionally the same as a judgment. That did not happen, however, in House v. Skanska U.S. Civil W. Cal. Dist. (D4d2 Jan. 5, 2024 No. E079363) [nonpub. opn.], which dismissed...Read More >>

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...Read More >>

Just a couple months ago, when the Court of Appeal issued a rare writ on a discovery issue, I noted that this was unusual because appellate courts generally loathe discovery disputes. But here comes the court with another discovery writ. There are two things in common between that earlier case and the more recent case...Read More >>

Right before trial, you expect to see some motions in limine trying to exclude some of your objectionable evidence. But if you see an MIL trying to decide entire issues, you are probably ready to pounce with an argument that an MIL is not supposed to be a cheap substitute for a motion for summary...Read More >>

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “Lack of statement of decision leads to reversal.” The article is about the development dispute in Casa Verde Landscaping Maint. Corp. v. Lennary Cmtys. (D4d1 Oct. 24, 2023 D081550) [nonpub. opn.], where the appellant correctly followed the two-step process for a statement of decision. When the trial court still...Read More >>

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...Read More >>

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...Read More >>

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “Specific Jurisdiction May Be Based on Past Contacts with Forum, Says 9th Circuit Panel over Judge VanDyke Dissent.” The article is about Impossible Foods Inc. v. Impossible X LLC, No. 21-16977 (9th Cir. Sep. 12, 2023), where the district court had ruled that, in a lawsuit involving trademark enforcement,...Read More >>

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “Sanctions of $8.7M was voidable, but not void, and so was reinstated on appeal.” The article is about In re the Marriage of Jensen (D2d2 Sep. 5, 2023) No. B320565 (nonpub. opn.), which distinguished void from voidable judgments. What makes a judgment or order “voidable” or “void” can be...Read More >>