A Quick Summary of the Ethics Rules on Discrimination for California Lawyers
4/20/21
By: Greg Fayard For decades, the California State Bar had an anti-discrimination ethics rule applicable to lawyers. That rule prevented lawyers from unlawfully discriminating in hiring, promoting, firing, or accepting or not accepting cases based on certain protected characteristics—the big ones that people thought about in the early 1990s: race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national…
SCOTUS Grants Injunctive Relief In Free Exercise Case Challenging California’s COVID-19 Restrictions
4/14/21
By: Caitlin Tubbesing Building on its pandemic-era Free Exercise Clause decisions, SCOTUS rejected the Ninth Circuit’s analysis of California’s COVID restrictions on religious activities for the fifth time on Friday (4/9/21). In a 5-4 vote in Tandon, et al. v. Newsom, et al., the majority granted two California pastors’ application for emergency injunctive relief relating…
Are Non-Refundable Lawyer Retainers Legal in California?
1/26/21
By: Greg Fayard Joe wants to hire Bill, a California lawyer, to defend a breach of contract case. Bill agrees to defend Joe but will only take a $10,000 non-refundable retainer. Is this legal? No. Under Rule 1.5(d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern California lawyers, non-refundable retainers are now permitted in a very…
New COVID-19 Notice Requirements for California Employers
1/12/21
By: Chelsea Whelan The new year ushers in new rules for California employers receiving notice of potential COVID-19 exposure in the workplace. California Labor Code section 6409.6 became effective January 1 this year following the passage of Assembly Bill 685 and will sunset on January 1, 2023. Section 6409.6 requires employers provide written notice within one business…
Are Adult Entertainment Clubs Going To Save California’s Restaurants?
12/22/20
By: John Moot In what could be the beginning of a reopening for restaurants hard hit by California’s new stay at home orders, two San Diego adult entertainment clubs have come to the rescue. A San Diego Superior Court Judge on December 16th granted a preliminary injunction enjoining any governmental entity or law enforcement officer from enforcing…
California Assembly Bill 1552 – Near Miss or Cautionary Tale for Insurers?
11/11/20
By: Ryan Greenspan As fear of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 continues to grip the world, an array of government rules, restrictions, and guidelines have been imposed. Some businesses have been operating at a limited capacity and some have closed outright. In March of this year, California’s governor issued one of the strictest orders in the…
11/10/20
By: Zachary Price Under Proposition 51, although all defendants in California are liable to a plaintiff for 100% of plaintiff’s economic damages (including such things as medical expenses and lost earnings), defendants are only liable for noneconomic damages (such as physical pain, mental suffering, and emotional distress) in proportion to their fault. In other words,…
California Lawyers Who Ignore Lienholders Do So At Their (Disciplinary) Peril
10/20/20
By: Greg Fayard In personal injury law, California lawyers regularly must deal with medical liens. For example, lienholders have certain rights to proceeds from a settled case and expect to be paid. In the past, if a California lawyer ignored or mishandled a medical lien on personal injury proceeds, the lienholder could pursue the attorney…
California’s New Normal: Electronic Service and Remote Depositions
9/25/20
By: Marshall Coyle Prior to California Governor Gavin Newsom approving Senate Bill 1146 on September 18, 2020, California law provided that, for cases filed on or after January 1, 2019, if a document may be served by mail, express mail, overnight delivery, or facsimile transmission, electronic service of the document was permitted if a party…
Avoiding Implied Attorney-Client Relationships with Individual Members of Small Companies
9/15/20
By: Jennifer Weatherup Where an attorney represents a partnership or entity, there is the potential for him or her to create an implied attorney-client relationship with its individual members, imposing a duty of care that the attorney may not be prepared to satisfy. This risk is particularly strong with small entities and partnerships, and attorneys…
California Expands Attorney Cooperation Requirement
9/1/20
By: Chuck Horn In California, for more than ten years, upon request of another party, a party has been required to provide an electronic version of its separate statement in connection with a motion for summary judgment. Since the separate statement would usually grow to three columns, covering many pages, with separate rows for citations…
Statute of Limitations Tolled in California Amid Pandemic
8/3/20
By: Matthew Jones In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom issued a “state of emergency” for the entire State. In response, the California Judicial Council adopted several Emergency Rules to implement during the pandemic. In particular, Rule 9 states that all statute of limitations for civil causes of action are tolled from April 6,…