(Subscription required) State Bar investigators can obtain confidential records from Downtown L.A. Law Group as part of a misconduct investigation tied to Los Angeles County's $4 billion juvenile sex abuse settlement, a judge ruled. Los Angeles County, which asked the State Bar to investigate the firm last year following media reports alleging it improperly recruited and paid people to file false abuse claims, welcomed the ruling Thursday. 

The initial testing, says the California Bar Association, showed that “attorneys, whether at large firms, medium-size firms, or solo practitioners, are not complying with important record-keeping requirements which, if (they) were in place, would prevent negligent trust fund management errors.”

A state appeals court panel today upheld a transient’s conviction for murdering a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate student who was stabbed 46 times inside a Hancock Park furniture store in an attack captured in a chilling audio recording. The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that Smith’s trial attorney violated the Racial Justice Act by comparing the defendant’s actions to an animal at the time he killed Brianna Kupfer, 22, on Jan. 13, 2022.

(Subscription required) Measures regulating children's use of AI chatbots, addictive online features and workplace surveillance are among hundreds of bills awaiting action.