(Subscription required) Commissioner Joel C. Koury begins every calendar not with case numbers but with a request: breathe. His courtroom philosophy blends discipline, empathy, and a refusal to let proceedings devolve into combat. Koury's methods -- from de-escalation rituals to blunt trial education -- have reshaped how litigants experience small claims and eviction cases in Inglewood.

(Subscription required) A federal judge found a 50-cent helpline fee for Way2Go child support debit card users to be an unfair business practice, ordering Comerica and Conduent to pay $7.95 million and stop charging the fee.

“It is profoundly un-American to suggest that people peacefully exercising their fundamental right to protest constitute a risk justifying the federalization of military forces,” U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer wrote in the opinion.

(Subscription required) District Judge P. Casey Pitts, presiding in San Jose federal court, heard arguments on the plaintiffs' motion to stay the Trump administration's current policies around rearresting noncitizens who had been previously detained, released and deemed to pose no flight risk or threat to the public by the government. The hearing also considered whether to grant class certification in the case.