Publications

Marsy's Law, last year's Proposition 9, received quite a bit of publicity before and after it passed. Marsy's Law converted some victim's rights from statutory rights to constitutional rights. It also added some new state constitutional rights for victims.

Sometimes it seems hard to find anything that large corporations and poor people have in common. But it turns out there is one surprising common trait: They are soft on criminals.

Trial lawyers know the importance of having a criminal conviction admitted in a civil case. Significant time and effort are put into having the conviction admitted into evidence.

Proposition 9, the Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 2008, also called Marsy's Law, passed with almost 54 percent of the vote. It is an interesting proposition, starting with its supporters.

Most of us remember the late-1990s phenomenon of Internet companies saying that brick-and-mortar business rules (and laws) did not apply to them. Remarkably, a service industry. closely tied to attorneys is still living in that era believing that neither requisite business skills (such as professional training) nor licensing laws should hamper them.

The Hewlett Packard pretexting scandal received widespread publicity. There were two main legal aspects.

The Hewlett Packard pretexting scandal received widespread publicity. While a criminal case is pending and there may be spin off litigation, the deal Hewlett Packard made with the California Attorney General is inked and done.

The navigation of employee bonus waters is difficult. Often, employers announce a program but do not want or intend to pay bonuses to employees who leave or who are terminated for cause. While are awarded for a wide array of achievements and over different periods, most common is the annual bonus.

Some of the biggest and most complex litigation involves class action cases. It is common in these cases for settlements to be placed in escrow accounts o be disbursed according to the court's order. Often plaintiffs counsel in these class actions prefers to be the escrow holder.

Eight years ago Congress decided that the existing means for awarding damages for trademark infringement were not deterring this illegal practice and decided to supplement these measures with statutory damages—a specific range that a court could award even in the absence of proof of a plaintiff's losses or the defendant's profits.