(Subscription required) The report suggests persistent access barriers, especially in rural areas, and may bolster controversial reform efforts aimed at expanding legal services through technology and non-lawyer professionals.

The Court of Appeal for this district yesterday determined that where a contract provided for attorney fees to the prevailing party in any litigation based on an alleged breach of the agreement, but conditioning such an award on the winner having sought mediation before suing, the provision did not apply, under the circumstances, although a cross complaint was filed without first attempting to work out differences.

Div. One of this district’s Court of Appeal has held that a trial judge prejudicially erred in rejecting a defense-requested negligence per se instruction in a case accusing a Long Beach police officer of causing a man to fall off the edge of a platform and die after being hit by an oncoming train during a search incident to arrest, saying the instruction based on a Penal Code section prohibiting escaping custody would have helped the jury assess comparative fault.

The Sixth District Court of Appeal has affirmed an unlawful detainer judgment against a tenant even though the defendant had not stipulated to the matter being heard by a commissioner, holding that a corporation unrepresented by a lawyer, though it has an answer on file, is not a “party litigant” having status to reject a pro tem judge.