A decision by a California Court of Appeal should broadcast a warning to anyone who signs up for a gym membership. Read the liability waiver carefully because courts broadly interpret the fitness facility’s rights to escape liability, even if one of their employees drops you after you fall off their... Read More »
When he was 18, petitioner Dominique John Whitehair pled guilty to misdemeanor charges that he annoyed or molested a child while “motivated by an unnatural or abnormal interest in the minor.” The court ordered him to register as a sex offender. Sixteen years later, his conviction was expunged. Shortly thereafter,... Read More »
The State Bar of California adopted its Rules of Professional Conduct (CRPC) to regulate the behavior of lawyers who would be subject to discipline for willful violations. When a lawyer threatened to use the personal, confidential information he had obtained in a previous case against a former client who was... Read More »
Employees who work for local governments will no longer have fewer rights to solicit political contributions from their fellow workers than those who work for state governments. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a section of the law that barred all their solicitations is constitutional. In 1996, California... Read More »
A California Court of Appeals has ruled that a driver who was pulled over for making an unsafe lane change, then detained while a police officer conducted an illegal “dog sniff,” will get a new trial where the evidence gathered by the ”certified narcotics collection police dog” will be suppressed. ... Read More »
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has given Anthony Alexandre another chance to avoid deportation to Haiti, where he claims he would be tortured by voodoo priests because of his “anti-voodoo views.” In a 2-1 decision reported in a Memorandum Opinion, the appellate court reviewed Alexandre’s petition for review of... Read More »
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the legal issues that remain in its wake are far from finished. A California case released last week, which decided whose responsibility it is to pay the expenses for work that had to be performed at home, is another one. Paul Thai, an... Read More »
Corby Kuciembas contracted a serious case of COVID-19 that caused her to be hospitalized where she was “kept alive on a respirator.” She claims she got the virus from her husband Robert, who also got COVID, and brought it home to her. Plaintiffs claimed the husband’s employer failed to take... Read More »
Many people no longer answer their phones since they assume, most often correctly, that there is a spam caller on the other end. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush to restrict automated... Read More »
A mechanical failure at a San Francisco fertility clinic caused plaintiffs to lose three embryos that they planned to use for in vitro fertilization. The couple, who hoped for a child, had purchased a homeowner’s insurance policy for the embryos. Their policy, however, would only reimburse them for “direct physical... Read More »
When someone’s Social Security benefits are denied, an administrative law judge (ALJ) often calls upon a “vocational expert” to determine the propriety of the denial. Plaintiff/appellant Caroline Leach disagreed with the expert’s evaluation of her medical condition and appealed her claim denial, arguing that her judgment, ability to follow directions,... Read More »
Warning: This is an X-rated case. Plaintiff Michelle Leuthauser passed through a security screening checkpoint at the Las Vegas airport on the way to her gate. After a body scan, she was told she had to submit to a “groin search.” She claims that she was sexually abused during the... Read More »
George Orwell’s 1984 warned that “Big Brother is Watching You.” It’s 2023 now, and every Facebook user knows that the internet giant is the modern-day equivalent of Big Brother. Facebook knows the location, sex, ethnicity, religion, political leanings, lifestyle choices and number of children every subscriber has. Each click adds... Read More »
In the wake of concerns about the lack of oversight about the ethics of some of its member-lawyers, the State Bar of California submitted a change to its Rules of Professional Conduct last year, which the California Supreme Court approved with minor changes on June 21. The new rule puts... Read More »
John Eastman, one of ex-President Donald Trump’s attorneys and the man accused of designing the legal strategy that sought to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election, is currently embroiled in a disbarment hearing that could result in him losing his license to practice law in California. ... Read More »
