The Fifth District Court of Appeal held yesterday that a defendant accused of trafficking minors for sex, among other charges, was entitled to withdraw his plea of no contest for ineffective assistance of counsel due to his lawyer wrongly advising him that he would be eligible to be released from prison after serving only half of his 24-year sentence.

(Subscription required) California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its "illegal takeover" of the California National Guard to quash protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles.

For decades, California has held a perverse sort of pride over how difficult its bar exam is, with passage rates far lower than other states. Now it has become an outlier for more embarrassing reasons. While most states use a standardized exam to test whether law school graduates are qualified to practice there, the State Bar of California crafts its own exam — one that is currently in shambles.

(Subscription required) Since taking the bench in 2022, she's presided over 71 preliminary hearings, 27 criminal motions, and 10 jury trials. She regularly sees as many as 120 defendants on her calendar. She greets the courtroom every morning and break. "I want everyone to feel welcome," she said.