(Subscription required) Superior Court Judge Enrique E. Camarena has presided over some of San Diego County's most complex and emotional cases, from family law to high-stakes criminal trials. But the Chula Vista native never forgets his roots -- or the weight of his father's legacy.

(Subscription required) When a tenant missed his eviction deadline after a ceiling collapse, he found himself lost in a legal system stacked against the unrepresented. Now, a sweeping Stanford Law study is driving reform in L.A. County eviction courts, highlighting the access-to-justice gap and offering concrete solutions--many already in motion.

When Joseph Grodin was a state Supreme Court justice 40 years ago, the court was a political lightning rod — at least for its rulings on criminal cases, particularly the death penalty. The court’s majority swung from liberal to conservative after the vote, drifted back to the center and later to its current moderately liberal majority, issuing mostly unanimous rulings while virtually disappearing from public view.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a District Court judge’s denial of monetary damages to a plaintiff who successfully moved for default judgment, finding that the jurist erred in determining that a federal law mandates the restricted award due to the complaint having left open the amount of recovery that was sought.