California

Honeymoon Period Is Fruitful for Job-Hunting UC-Irvine Law Students

The first students at the new law school at the University of California at Irvine will all be employed this summer, half of them with nonprofit groups. The Recorder (sub. req.) has the story. “So far, it’s been good to be a UC-Irvine law student,” the story says. “Not only…

Mar 25, 2010 3:29 PM CDT

Lawyer Jailed in Lieu of $7.5M Bail in Alleged Real Estate Fraud

A California lawyer is in jail in lieu of $7.5 million bail, accused of participating in a fraudulent property transfer scheme that allegedly reaped $2.2 million in loans and involved the filing of falsified real estate documents. Investigators in the San Francisco County case also contend that San Jose attorney…

Mar 24, 2010 9:22 PM CDT

Judge to Review 1,100 Crime Lab Docs; PD: ‘This Could Be Pandora’s Box’

A California judge has ordered the San Francisco police crime lab to turn over for a relevance review some 1,100 pages of documents related to an investigation of a veteran technician suspected of stealing cocaine evidence during her 29-year career there. Depending on what Judge Anne-Christine Massullo sees, the review…

Mar 24, 2010 8:50 PM CDT

Judge Sentences Couple Who Admitted Shoplifting on Dr. Phil

A Southern California couple who appeared on Dr. Phil and admitted selling shoplifted toys on eBay will be going to prison. A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Matthew Eaton of San Marcos to 27 months in prison; his wife, Laura Eaton, was sentenced to a year, according to stories…

Mar 23, 2010 11:33 AM CDT

Is DA ‘Turning the Scalpel of Recusal Into a Chain Saw’?

About two months ago, a California state-court judge not only freed a convicted child molester but accused the assistant Santa Clara County district attorney on the case of testifying falsely about the evidence. After that, what had been a somewhat strained relationship at the San Jose courthouse between Judge Andrea…

Mar 22, 2010 9:08 PM CDT

9th Cir.: Anna Nicole Smith Gets Zip, Zero, Zilch of Texas Billionaire’s Estate

A hard-fought 15-year court battle by the late celebrity model Anna Nicole Smith and her heirs over the estate of the Texas oil billionaire she married when she was 26 and he was 89 may have finally ended in complete defeat of her claims. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of…

Mar 19, 2010 8:29 PM CDT

Simplicity Law Has 3 Attorneys & Big Plan: A Presence in Top 100 Markets

After Dion Persson graduated from Yale Law School, he worked for Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Johns Manville, eventually rising to the position of general counsel. Now he operates a small Jefferson County, Colo.-based business law firm that calls itself Simplicity Law. The firm posts its prices on…

Mar 19, 2010 5:00 PM CDT

Fighting Extradition in Child-Sex Case, Polanski Claims More Long-Ago Judicial Misconduct

Fighting to keep famed film director Roman Polanski from being extradited from Switzerland to face sentencing in a decades-old California child-sex case from which he fled following conviction, his lawyers are now making new allegations of long-ago judicial misconduct. Among them: That the now-deceased judge in the case met in…

Mar 18, 2010 11:14 PM CDT

Appeals Court OKs Cyberbullying Suit, Says Threats Nixed SLAPP Law

Ruling on a defendant’s argument that a so-called SLAPP law precluded a tort claim for alleged cyberbullying, a divided California appeals court has given the green light to the defamation and civil rights suit by the unidentified teen victim and his family. In a written opinion (PDF) on Monday, a…

Mar 18, 2010 12:09 AM CDT

Judge in Prop 8 Trial Leaves Bench During Orrick Partner’s Argument

Updated: A federal judge hearing a challenge to California’s gay-marriage ban listened to more than 90 minutes of arguments in a dispute over documents on Tuesday, but abruptly left the bench during a presentation by a lawyer from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker “strode off…

Mar 17, 2010 2:53 PM CDT

Refused Liver Transplant Coverage, Man Pays for It Himself, Sues & Wins Legal Fees

A successful produce merchant, Ephram Nehme was able to pay for a liver transplant himself. That enabled him to have the life-saving surgery when his insurer—after initially approving coverage for the surgery—rejected his doctor’s recommendation to seek a transplant out-of-state, where the wait time was expected to be much shorter.…

Mar 16, 2010 6:37 PM CDT

A Judge’s Unusual Request: Don’t Print This in Westlaw or Lexis

Unpublished opinions often show up in online databases, but one federal judge in Los Angeles is apparently trying to do something about it. Judge A. Howard Matz has added this line to at least 15 recent orders: “This order is not intended for publication or for inclusion in the databases…

Mar 11, 2010 11:30 AM CST

‘West Coast Ralph Nader’ Dies at 91, Kept Justice Frankfurter Note on Desk

After growing up during the Great Depression, William Bennett dropped out of law school to serve as a bomber pilot in World War II, flying 35 missions over Nazi-occupied Europe and returning with the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Bronze Star medals. By the time he graduated from University of…

Mar 5, 2010 8:17 PM CST

Lawyer Accused of Losing Investor Money to Day Trading Losses

A California lawyer has been charged with wire fraud in an alleged $1.2 million phony investment scheme. The indictment claims lawyer David Boyer Prince of Saratoga promised at least 30 investors that they would earn 5 to 25 percent interest on their money each month, the San Jose Mercury News…

Mar 5, 2010 1:28 PM CST

Judge & Clerk Sue Sheriff Over Courtroom Shiv Attack By Murder Defendant

Emotionally disabled after a murder defendant leaving the witness stand attacked her with a homemade knife, a now-retired California judge is suing the San Joaquin County sheriff’s department over the exactly 1-year-old incident. Although a Lodi police detective in the Stockton courtroom shot and killed the defendant before then-San Joaquin…

Mar 4, 2010 11:20 PM CST