A nurse at a hospital successfully pled a cause of action for false imprisonment based on an allegation that an administrative assistant-secretary who was under her supervision blocked her from exiting her office, even without a specification as to the duration of the detention and the apparent purpose having been to prevent a third party from leaving, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has held.

Div. Six of this district’s Court of Appeal held yesterday that a trial judge did not abuse her discretion in awarding the rape victim of an on-campus assault $20,000 in restitution to account for a four-year scholarship she lost after withdrawing from classes at the Camarillo-based California State University Channel Islands in the wake of the attack, rejecting the defendant’s view that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision operates to require a jury trial on the issue.

The defendant in an action against it by a former employee who alleges fraud and unfair business practices had no standing to move for the disqualification of the plaintiff’s lawyer on the ground that, as a deputy Los Angeles alternate public defender, he was impermissibly representing a private client, Div. Five of this district’s Court of Appeal has declared.

(Subscription required) Judge Dean Hansell expected family law to be a brief stop before moving to civil. A decade later, the complex financial cases, thorny legal questions, and human stakes have convinced him he has "one of the best jobs" on the Los Angeles County bench.