California

Bratz Maker Splits With O’Melveny, Investigates Fees

The maker of the popular Bratz doll—sort of a Barbie alternative with attitude—has hired a new law firm to represent it in an upcoming trial after a dispute with O’Melveny & Myers. The underlying case involves claims by Barbie maker Mattel that the designer of the Bratz doll did his…

Nov 2, 2007 2:53 PM CDT

Lawsuit Targets Alleged CA ‘Legal Aid’ Scam

The phrase “legal aid” is used in a Northern California business name. But contrary to what that phrase suggests, the company isn’t a nonprofit legal aid clinic. Instead, the Legal Center for Legal Aid is a sham business that misrepresents itself in order to scam would-be clients out of their…

Nov 2, 2007 2:00 AM CDT

CA Judge: New Execution Regs Invalid

An effort to enact a new execution protocol in California that would put an end to a death penalty moratorium declared last year by a federal judge has suffered a setback. The protocol is invalid, a state judge has decided, because it was not created in compliance with the required…

Nov 2, 2007 12:39 AM CDT

Halloween Means Murder—and Justice—to Victim’s Family

For nearly 25 years, there’s been no trick-or-treating at the California home of the Hoynes family Halloween in 1984 was the day when the family found out that one of their four girls, 21-year-old Robin, had been murdered at her job as a manager of a fast-food restaurant in nearby…

Oct 31, 2007 5:24 PM CDT

Boy Admits to Playing With Matches, Starting Wildfire

A boy has admitted he started one of the California wildfires after playing with matches, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s police. The blaze, one of 15 major wildfires, destroyed 21 homes. It is not clear if the youth has been arrested or if his parents will be held financially…

Oct 31, 2007 2:28 PM CDT

Court: CA Judge Complaints Confidential

If a police officer acts improperly during an arrest, a defendant in a California criminal case has a right to obtain in camera judicial review of that officer’s personnel file to see if it contains relevant material about the issue that should be produced in discovery and potentially introduced as…

Oct 30, 2007 6:27 PM CDT

Lerach Guilty Plea Allows Him to Keep Millions

Securities class action lawyer William Lerach formally entered a guilty plea yesterday that acknowledges he paid kickbacks to lead plaintiffs. Lerach faces up to two years in jail and has agreed to pay nearly $8 million in fines and penalties. But the settlement allows him to keep tens of millions…

Oct 30, 2007 2:36 PM CDT

Suits Target Chemical Used in Medical Tests

Plaintiffs lawyers are filing lawsuits against companies involved in the manufacture of a contrast dye used to help capture images for medical tests. The suits claims the heavy metal, gadolinium, can cause a disease called nephrogenic system fibrosis that hardens the skin, the Recorder reports. The Food and Drug Administration…

Oct 30, 2007 10:30 AM CDT

Fire Fear for Illegal Residents: Deportation

As residents throughout many areas of Southern California worry about potential damage from the wildfires that have been burning for the past week, illegal immigrants have had a particular cause for concern. Although authorities say they are not using emergency shelters as an opportunity to check the residency status of…

Oct 29, 2007 3:50 PM CDT

Rest Easy: Plan for the Inevitable

Although lots of folks say they intend to plan for the inevitable, most don’t. Some 70 percent of Americans die without making a will or any other arrangement for distributing assets after their deaths—although, in some cases, that makes sense, reports the Los Angeles Times in a detailed article discussing…

Oct 29, 2007 3:28 PM CDT

Suit Contends Oracle Destroyed Discovery Docs

A shareholder lawsuit against Oracle Corp. alleges that hundreds of e-mails and financial records have not been turned over to plaintiffs. Documents in the case recently unsealed at the request of the National Law Journal include a motion for default judgment against the company as a sanction for document destruction,…

Oct 29, 2007 3:11 PM CDT

FedEx Fee Fight Heats Up

A fight is brewing over attorney fees claimed by two plaintiffs lawyers who sued FedEx Corp. for discrimination. The San Francisco lawyers represented clients who split off from a huge class action and won $4.5 million in damages, the Recorder reports. Now the fee fight is getting “nastier and nastier,”…

Oct 26, 2007 11:18 AM CDT

Merger Mania: From Small to BigLaw, Then Goodbye Job

When Berg & Parker, a 13-lawyer California boutique with a significant real estate practice, merged into 400-attorney Preston Gates & Ellis about three years ago, its attorneys had high hopes for their future with the Seattle-based national firm. But after Preston Gates merged with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham roughly…

Oct 25, 2007 6:47 PM CDT

Court Upholds Order Keeping Lawyer Away From Ex-Judge

A California lawyer will have to stay at least 100 yards away from the judge who handled his divorce under a restraining order upheld yesterday by an appeals court. Lawyer James Disney of Concord had appealed the order, contending it violated his freedom of speech and right to practice law,…

Oct 25, 2007 2:25 PM CDT

Another Partner Leaves Heller, Wants to Avoid Being ‘Cog’

Yet another partner is leaving Heller Ehrman, said to be experiencing a rough patch that led it to fire 65 support staffers. The latest to leave is corporate lawyer Kyle Guse. He will join McDermott Will & Emery, where he plans to take his biotech and tech clients, Legal Pad…

Oct 25, 2007 1:39 PM CDT