• Carter remands Ventura County dam case to state court

    Daily Journal
    July 24, 2026

    (Subscription required) The lawsuit challenges United Water Conservation District's operation, maintenance and water diversions at the Vern Freeman Dam on the Santa Clara River. The case has remained in federal court while U.S. District Judge David O. Carter presided over a related, decade-long Endangered Species Act action involving the same dam.

  • A new financial sting for disciplined lawyers

    Daily Journal
    July 24, 2026

    (Subscription required) The California Supreme Court just extended the State Bar's restitution power, ruling that lawyers can be ordered to pay victims of civil fraud judgments as a condition of discipline -- even when those victims were never clients. The unanimous decision opened a new pitfall that can snare errant lawyers who duck paying the bill when a judge or jury rules against them.

    Related: Supreme Court of California - Opinion

  • Conviction tossed in $1 million Bay Area COVID fraud case over juror bias

    CalMatters
    July 23, 2026

    Atilla Colar in 2023 was convicted on 44 felony charges related to an alleged COVID benefit fraud scheme at a Bay Area parolee rehabilitation program.

  • Woman’s Online Ridicule of Former Spouse Not ‘Protected’

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    July 23, 2026

    The Fifth District Court of Appeal, affirming an order denying a special motion to strike brought by a woman who is being sued by her ex-husband to halt her derisive Facebook posts, has rejected the contention that under case law, discussions of personal matters that have a link to topics of public interest are necessarily protected speech for purposes of the anti-SLAPP statute.