A divided panel of Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has held that it was structural error for a judge to grant an attorney’s request to be relieved from his post-judgment appointment, and to take a motion off calendar, without first giving notice to the defendant even if the lawyer correctly pointed out to the court that his client is statutorily ineligible for the relief he sought.

Unreasonableness on the part of a Superior Court clerk’s office in bouncing a notice of appeal has, for the second time in a period of less than a month, drawn scorn of a court of appeal, with the First District’s Div. Five holding that there was no justification for the rejection of such a document and that a judge subsequently erred in sustaining a demurrer without leave to amend and ordering a judgment of dismissal.

Div. Four of the First District Court of Appeal has declared that although it’s lawful to film someone who is in public without obtaining the person’s consent, that does not preclude issuance of a restraining order where the conduct amounts to harassment.

(Subscription required) Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to seek death against Nick Reiner, but attorneys say capital punishment remains legally viable in California, where prosecutors in some counties continue to pursue and obtain death sentences even as executions remain frozen.