Based on their findings, legal experts determined that California is the busiest state for civil disputes in the entire nation but ranks as fourth-fastest in processing them.

(Subscription required) The initiative would make it tougher for cities, counties and the state to increase taxes by expanding the definition of what constitutes a tax, requiring statewide voter approval of legislatively enacted taxes and raising the approval threshold for local special taxes to two-thirds of the electorate.

(Subscription required) For her part, Passaglia said the move from prosecutor to judge came naturally. “The day I took the bench the transition began. The easy part was that I knew how courtrooms run. Judging requires a different mindset, you stop being an advocate and become a neutral third party. You observe everything and step in when appropriate."

(Subscription required) Former Girardi Keese attorney David R. Lira has been charged with two counts of perjury in a federal criminal case that accuses him and his father-in-law, Tom Girardi, of misappropriating over $3 million in settlement funds intended for the victims of a 2018 crash of a Boeing jet in Indonesia.