The California Legislature was quite busy in 2012 in the labor and employment arena, passing more than a dozen new laws affecting employers. California employers will need to take prompt action to ensure compliance, including revising employee handbooks, employment policies and practices. The most significant of...

Several months ago, we wrote about the latest survey of hourly billing rates for law firms nationwide. A new survey has now emerged: at the end of 2012, the National Law Journal ("NLJ") published the findings of its annual survey for 2012. NLJ surveyed 55...

Several months ago we wrote about the massive budget cuts expected to affect the Los Angeles Superior Court ("LASC"), the largest trial court in the nation. Now LASC has announced how the cuts will be implemented, and it is not a pretty picture: Total cuts...

We have all heard horror stories about hit-and-run drivers or automobile accidents where the party at fault has no insurance.  In California, it has been estimated that as many as one in seven drivers on the road are uninsured, and as many as one in three are underinsured.  The odds of...

Employment lawsuits account for a staggering 30% of all civil litigation in the United States today.  In this lackluster economy, people who lose their jobs or suffer other adverse employment actions have real incentives to file lawsuits against former, current, or even prospective employers (as do their contingency-fee lawyers). ...

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Superior Court announced a new round of deep cuts in courtroom staffing, and the closing or consolidating of several courtrooms. Since the recession of 2008, this largest trial court in the nation has lost more than 500 of its staff...

Last year around this time we reviewed several pieces of legislation which California's then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had vetoed, claiming that the proposed laws were “anti-business,” or that they exposed California employers to frivolous lawsuits.  In 2011, the Legislature passed many of the same measures, with high...