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...
The First District holds that an attorney representing an estate in litigation to recover an asset may be liable to a non-client successor estate representative appointed by a foreign jurisdiction. After William Smith moved from Californ...
The Second District holds that a false police report is not constitutionally protected conduct for purposes of analysis under California’s anti- Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation Statute, despite the fact that it is potentially prot...
The Second District holds that illegal conduct not protected by the anti-SLAPP statute is limited to criminal conduct. Although attorney conduct may be protected activity under the anti-SLAPP statute, where attorney conduct reveals client ...
The Sixth District holds that filing a small claims action is an effective rejection of a MFAA arbitration award even if the arbitration award exceeds the small-claims jurisdictional limit. Crowley represented Giorgianni in a family law proceedi...
