(Subscription required) Once a flowing river through Bakersfield, the Kern now runs dry for most of the year. A case now before the California Supreme Court asks whether state law requires it to flow again--and what that answer could mean for water users statewide. 

(Subscription required) Judges in California and Washington last week rejected class certification in lawsuits against Zendesk Inc. and Snap Inc., citing flaws in expert evidence and a lack of commonality under pay equity and pay transparency laws. 

Div. Eight of this district’s Court of Appeal yesterday vacated a judgment pursuant to a jury verdict for nearly $14 million in a personal injury lawsuit arising out of a low-speed traffic collision, holding that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge erred in allowing testimony from a surgeon who was only disclosed to the defense seven court days before trial without any showing of good cause for the delay in seeking to designate a new expert.

Div. Five of the First District Court of Appeal has held that a trial court properly found that a coalition challenging a new housing development plan for UC Berkeley was not a “successful party” for purposes of a request to recover more than $1 million in public-interest attorney fees based on its partial success in an earlier appellate decision that was reversed by the high court following legislation that passed during appeal to abrogate the rulings in its favor.