After more than three years and two rounds of briefing, the California Supreme Court has issued its long-awaited decision in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court. Overall, the decision is a significant win for employers. Here...
The San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO) requires medium and large-sized employers to spend a minimum amount per hour on healthcare for their employees who work in San Francisco. To ensure compliance, the San Francisco Office of L...
Payments Due To The Prime Design Professional California Civil Code Section 3320, as amended, will become effective July 1, 2012. The amendments do not substantively change the time period for payment or the amount of the penalty for payments wr...
Effective January 1, 2012, California added Corporations Code Sections 14600 to 14631 to its statutes allowing the formation of “benefit” corporations or “b” corporations. Benefit corporations are a new type of corporation formed for pur...
California employers know each New Year brings a host of new laws and regulations with which they must become familiar and compliant. 2012 is no different. Below is a brief summary of the key new employment laws covering issues like credit che...
The Ninth Circuit holds that a defendant’s motion raising claims of ineffective assistance of counsel does not unilaterally waive a joint defense privilege. Louis Gonzalez and his wife, Katherine Paiz were convicted in separate trials of insur...
The Second District holds that clients cannot avoid their financial obligations by structuring a settlement that allows them to avoid a contractual lien for attorney fees. Frank Martini and Satanand Sharma (the “Martini parties”) retained...
The Ninth Circuit holds that an attorney who referred a case to other counsel was entitled to have the value of the referral considered in calculating an award of quantum meruit fees. The District Court awarded Nevada attorney Brian Fitzgerald...
The Third District upholds disqualification of counsel where the attorney previously represented the adversary’s father in a similar family law dispute and where there was a substantial probably that the attorney would be both witness and advoca...
The Second District holds that a client’s claims are fundamentally premised on attorney malpractice in the criminal defense context, and fail because he cannot establish actual innocence or postconviction relief. A jury convicted Bahman Kh...
The Ninth Circuit holds that as long as a defendant has sufficient objectively reasonable evidence to suspect a crime, a plaintiff cannot establish lack of probable cause to support a malicious prosecution claim. This is true even if a defendant...
The Fourth District holds a recordation of a lis pendens is protected by the litigation privilege so long as it meets the requirements of Civil Code § 47 regardless of the evidentiary merit of the underlying claim. Alpha and Omega Development...
]]>