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Conviction of defendant for first degree murder and attempted premeditated murder is affirmed but the judgment is modified where: 1) substantial evidence supported the gun-use enhancements; 2) the trial court erred in imposing more than one 5 year enhancement pursuant to Pen. Code section 667(a)(1) as separate enhancements were improperly imposed for three prior convictions; and 3) defendant is entitled to credit for 466 days of presentence custody as his presentence custody credit was miscalculated....

This year, about 68,000 (yes, thousand) people are expected to trek into the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for Burning Man. Veteran and virgin Burners alike should remember that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will enforce local and state laws during the event, which runs through Labor Day. Though revelers will be there to watch The Man burn, here are five legal issues to consider on the dust-filled Playa:...

An electric scooter company is suing the City of Beverly Hills for impounding its scooters and levying fines of more than $100,000. In Bird Rides v. City of Beverly Hills, the startup says the city has “gone to the extreme” and violated the California Vehicle Code. Not only that, the lawsuit says, the city has violated state open-meeting, public participation, and environmental laws. It sounds like a scattershot complaint except that a BigLaw firm filed the case, and it doesn’t usually wing it....

Petition for writ of mandate issue directing superior court to vacate an order denying a motion to stay proceedings until real parties in interest-homeowners complied with their obligation to give plaintiff-builder an opportunity to repair the claimed defects is reversed where the burden is not on the plaintiff-builder to establish that it had chosen to opt-in to the statutory scheme by performing its disclosure obligations under Code of Civ. Pro. sec....

A consultant scooped the annual law school rankings by U.S. News and World Report, but that’s no surprise. The Spivey Consulting Group has been right about the rankings before. After all, it’s just an early release of the same rankings and the usual suspects round out the top spots. But it is surprising to see some law schools charging up the charts and others going down hard. Among other hard-chargers, U....

In plaintiff’s action against a convalescent hospital claiming she was admitted without her consent, judgment of the trial court is affirmed where, although a stipulated judgment is appealable, plaintiff cannot show that allegedly erroneous rulings were prejudicial. Read Villano v. Waterman Convalescent Hosp., Inc., No. E045796 [HTML] Read Villano v. Waterman Convalescent Hosp., Inc., No. E045796 [PDF] Appellate Information Filed February 5, 2010 Judges Opinion by Judge Richli CounselFor Appellant: Berglund & Johnson, Gary L....

Madeline Desmet is either desperate or severely deranged. When a man rejected her romantic overtures, the 64-year-old started following him around. It got so bad, the man obtained a restraining order. It went ignored. In December 2011, the man received a strange call from the Seattle Municipal Court. Soon after, an employee from Jared Jewelry called and asked how he planned to pay for a wedding ring Desmet had picked out....

Who among us hasn’t dreamed of exacting revenge against your parents for an unfair punishment? Still, chances are, as a teen, arrow shooting was more of a dormant fantasy than a potential reality. But for one 15-year-old girl in Tahuya, Washington, it was a possibility that earlier this week came to life. When her dad took her cell phone, she responded with an arrow. To the gut. Apparently, the un-named girl, who lives with her 35-year-old father, is an avid deer hunter, giving her access to a high-powered bow and arrow, reports The Seattle Times....

One might expect that partner compensation would decline in the present economy. After all, the legal industry hasn’t exactly been thriving since 2009 or so. Industry-leading firms were shuttered, partners and associates were sent to the soup kitchens, and the legal lifestyle has been more madness than Mad Men. And yet – unless you are a woman, black, or a litigator – your compensation likely went up between 2010 and 2012, according to a survey done by Major, Lindsey & Africa....

President Trump met with Wall Street executives on Friday, then emerged to sign an executive order that could be used to roll back Dodd-Frank regulations. The president also signed a memorandum instructing the Treasury Department to reexamine the new retirement broker fiduciary rule. Taken together, the two directives could mark the beginning of the end for some signature Obama-era financial reforms. But they are just the beginning, the start of a process that could take months or longer to play out....

Unless you plan on becoming a law professor, half of the classes you take in law school are a complete waste of time. This is especially true with the law school electives that you take to fill out your 3L schedule with the goal of boosting your GPA. Still, every law school is different. Classes that may be a complete waste of time at one school, like those mentioned in a recent Wall Street Journal piece and discussed on the TaxProf Blog, may be beneficial at another school....

So you didn’t get that dream law firm job coming out of law school. Your Plan B involved responding to a Craigslist ad for an attorney doc review project, and you ended up getting the job. Congratulations. Or are condolences in order? Never stick out. You’ll want to aim for middle of the pack. Don’t play super lawyer and raise Constitutional issues on every paragraph. Only go to your supervisor if something truly important comes up (it won’t)....

In a petition for review of a worker’s compensation judge’s order granting petitioner’s employer a credit against future worker’s compensation payments resulting from petitioner’s injuries, the petition is denied where payments from the California Insurance Guarantee Association counted toward such a credit. Read Baur v. Wkrs.’ Comp. Appeals Bd., No. C061042 Appellate Information Filed August 21, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Robie Concurrence by Judge Scotland Counsel For Petitioner: Andy Kirk, Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller & Johnsen...

The death penalty of the “Cold Storage Killer” was upheld this week by the California Supreme Court. The case involved the body of a woman that was found in a freezer on the property of the convicted killer, John Famalaro. Here’s the gruesome part — the body was found three years after the woman’s abandoned car was found with a flat tire parked on the shoulder of the Corona del Mar Freeway in Newport Beach....

A divided California Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the idea that a franchise parent company can be automatically held liable for the acts of a franchisee. The 4-3 decision will surely make waves, as the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel decided last month that McDonald’s could be held liable for labor violations of franchisees. The case involves a Domino’s franchise and an employee claiming that a manager had been sexually harassing her....

The Houston County Courthouse in Alabama has a strangely themed Christmas tree this year. It’s covered only in angels and crime victim ornaments. As in, ornaments containing the photos of murdered persons. Though slightly morose, the tree is fueled by good intentions. VOCAL – Victims of Crime and Leniency – put up the tree to honor local murder victims during the holidays. But even good intentions can be problematic. Local defense attorney Billy Sheffield is fighting the victim tree, calling it “highly prejudicial and inflammatory....

An Indiana man shot and killed his lawyer while picking up a file at the attorney’s house. The shooter, an 83-year-old man, was a client in a civil case. According to reports, the attorney and his client were also long-time friends. Police said they didn’t know why the client killed T. Edward Page. Neither did the lawyer. Retiring Defender Page, 64, had worked as a Lake County public defender the last ten years....

A federal judge in Kentucky is no fan of law-breaking hunters. The tough jurist sentenced North Carolina resident Rodney Poteat to a two-year, worldwide hunting ban earlier this month. Convicted on charges of illegal hunting and removing wildlife, Poteat will serve out the ban as part of court-ordered probation. He will also pay the state $5,300–the cost of licensing fees he failed to pay between 2002 and 2011. Poteat’s worldwide hunting ban is receiving a significant amount of attention due in part to its unusually wide scope....

In 2015, years of intense grass roots opposition succeeded in shutting down the Key Stone XL Pipeline, a massive pipeline that would run from the intensely polluting Alberta tar sands to the Gulf Coast. Since then, pipeline fights have remained at the forefront of environmental fights. One of the most recent battles is over the Dakota Access pipeline, a $3.8 billion project that would transfer crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to Illinois, and through the sacred lands of many Native American groups....

According to a complaint filed against Facebook, a manager called employees “nr” and “monkey.” He also referred to one African-American as a “lazy nr who wanted everything handed to him,” the suit alleges. Robert Baron Duffy and Robert Louis Gary responded by filing racial discrimination claims against the company. Duffy, a former operations manager at the company’s North Carolina facility, and Gary, a night shift manager there, also claim they were paid less than their Caucasian colleagues....