|
« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
It's cheaper for California counties to seek life without parole rather than the death penalty, finds a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
The report, released to the state Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice on Friday, finds that counties would save $22 million if life sentences were sought instead of pursuing death penalty trials, The Recorder reported.
Justices on a California state Court of Appeal, who kicked up a national controversy last month by holding that parents who home-school their children must have a teaching credential, has agreed to reconsider.
The Los Angeles 2nd District Court of Appeal, in effect, voided their 3-0 decision and set new arguments for June. Although it is not unusual for the appeals courts to grant rehearings, the new decisions nearly always relate to minor revisions but rarely change the final conclusion.
But the home-schooling cases appear to be an exception. This time the court has asked to have written arguments from state and local officials and teachers unions, suggesting a complete re-examination of the case, Jonathan L. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, B192878.
The decision created a storm of criticism from home-schooling advocates who say 166,000 children in California are taught at home, most by parents who lack teaching credentials. It could put many of them at risk for violation of the state's compulsory-education law.
The ruling drew criticism from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell who said he favors parental choice in education.
The original decision said that a 1953 state law made clear that children between 6 and 18 are required to attend a full-time day school, whether public or private, and must be taught by a tutor with a state credential. It arose after the family of Philip and Mary Long of Linwood, who home-school their eight children through the Sunland Christian School in Sylmar, came under suspicion of being physically abusive.
- Pamela A. MacLean
A San Diego Superior Court judge told the county to rewrite the its medical services program for the poor, saying it lacks legal justification, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Friday's ruling settles a three year dispute over the program between San Diego County supervisors and the L.A.-based Western Center on Law and Poverty.
Judge Ronald Styn ruled that the county's income limit of 135% lacked evidentiary basis and that the county's co-payment formula and hardship-waiver policy had no basis, the Union-Tribune reported. The hardship policy determined a patients ability to pay health care by estimated future earnings.
Styn's ruling makes people earning less than 165 percent of the poverty level eligible for the program until county regulations are rewritten, Western Center on Law and Poverty attorney Katie Murphy told the North County Times.
A June 6 hearing will review the county's amendments to the regulations.
Employers are getting pummeled with rest and meal-break class actions this year, fallout from a 2007 California decision they claim has plaintiffs coming out of the woodwork, The National Law Journal reports.
The California Supreme Court ruled that payments owed from missed meal and rest breaks are considered wages, not penalties. That gave employees a three-year, rather than a one-year, statute of limitations, and tripled — in some cases quadrupled — an employer's exposure to claims for unpaid breaks.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals released former defense contractor Brent Wilkes on bail while he appeals his bribery conviction and 12-year sentence, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Lawyers and law professors told media outlets that it was unusual and likely good news for Wilkes that the 9th Circuit reversed U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns' decision about bond.
The appeals court said Wilkes' appeal raises a "substantial question" that may lead to a reversal, a new trial or a sentence without imprisonment, KPBS news reported. (LISTEN)
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are considering appealing the trial courts sentence claiming federal sentencing guidelines were incorrectly applied. They're trying to get a sentence between 16 and 25 years.
U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie died of cancer last Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 79.
Rafeedie called himself "the only carny to get to the federal courts," the Times reported. After fighting in the Korean War, Rafeedie followed a carnival friend who was studying law and applied to USC.
In 1971, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed Rafeedie to Los Angeles Superior Court, where he heard the celebrity cases of Groucho Marx, Rod Stewart and Evel Knievel, the Associated Press reported.
In 1982, President Reagan appointed
Rafeedie to U.S. District Court, where he heard the torture-murder case
of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and controversially ruled that the kidnapping of a suspect violated a U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty. He also presided over the plea agreement of a Beverly Hills doctor who's cooperation led to the criminal investigation of the firm now known as Milberg Weiss, according to the AP.
Services are Thursday at 10 a.m. at St. Monica Catholic
Church, 725 California Ave., Santa Monica. Send donations to the City of Hope, 1055 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017.
Walnut Creek's Archer Norris added one attorney to their Los Angeles office and two attorneys into their new, bigger Newport Beach office.
Louis Chao, a construction litigation attorney, joins the firms L.A. office as of counsel. Chao was previous at Sabaitis O'Callaghan.
Stephanie Kitzes and Daniel McKenzie moved into the Archer Norris' new Newport Beach office, three times the size of its previous office.
Kitzes focuses her practice on business and estate planning, offering her
clients the benefit of her prior experience as in-house general counsel
in a wide range of business, human resources and commercial
transactions. She joins the office as of counsel. Kitzes was previously at Murtaugh Meyer's Irvine office.
McKenzie, a civil litigator who focuses on catastrophic injuries, joins the office as an associate. McKenzie was previously at The Reeves Law Group in Santa Ana.
Jeffer Mangels added of counsel Andra Vaccaro and associates Alex DeGood and Edi Shawn Stiles to their Los Angeles office.
Vaccaro focuses on patent, trademark, copyright and unfair competition law. She previously had her own practice in L.A.
Degood joined the firm's group on government, land use and zoning, and environment and energy. He was previously at Burke Williams and before that, DeGood was director of legislative affairs for a Washington, D.C. governmental affairs firm.
Stiles was previously at Ord & Norman, where she worked on estate planning, asset
protection planning, and domestic and international taxation for
individuals and businesses and representation of clients before the
IRS. At Jeffer Mangels, Stile will focus on drafting of estate planning documents for
high net worth individuals, including wills, foreign and domestic deeds
of trust, qualified personal residence trusts and foundations.
Nossaman Guthner promoted Julia Caputo Stift to partner at their Los Angeles office.
Stift focuses on federal, state and local tax matters and state and sales tax matter for foreign and domestic clients.
She also provides councils clients on taxable and tax-free mergers, acquisitions and divisions and the tax consequences of public and private offerings of equity and debt.
A reverend in Carson launched a write-in campaign for six Los Angeles Superior Court seats targeting Latino judges, claiming they would be easier to defeat that white judges, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Rev. Ronald Tan is specifically trying to find lawyers of a Filipino background, claiming that the similarities he perceives between the names of Latino and Filipino people would somehow help.
He was prompted to start the write-in campaign because he believes Los Angeles judges are ruling based on partisan ties rather than the law.
Tan has filed petitions on six judges, who don't know what to do as they wait to find out if anyone is running against them on June 3. He was assisted by William Johnson who is running for an open court seat against Superior Court Commissioner James Bianco, the Times reported.
The six judges are:
