A California appellate court this week ruled Sonoma County failed to comply with the state’s bedrock environmental law when officials in 2023 amended the local ordinance regulating approval of new well permits outside city limits. The ruling means the county will likely have to devote closer study to the impact of its amended ordinance on imperiled species like salmon and steelhead trout in the Russian River watershed.

(Subscription required) Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed his top staff attorney to the Third District Court of Appeal as he rushes to fill appellate vacancies around the state in his final months in office. Sapp was one of eight appellate court appointees Newsom’s office announced Friday. 

(Subscription required) The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that trial courts must provide low-income civil litigants with an official verbatim record of court proceedings, including through electronic recording when a court reporter is unavailable. In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, the court said California's chronic shortage of court reporters cannot leave litigants who cannot afford private reporters without a meaningful record for appeal.

The Commission on Judicial Nominations on Friday gave a green light to the elevation of Tari Cody from the post of associate justice of the Court of Appeal for this district to presiding justice and confirmed Nicholas Daum’s step up from the Los Angeles Superior Court to this district’s appeals court. Also confirmed were Sonny S. Sandhu as an associate justice in the Fifth District and Charles Adams in the Sixth District.