The Fifth District Court of Appeal yesterday affirmed an order awarding a victim of childhood sexual abuse $1.8 million in restitution for non-economic losses, as well as smaller amounts to her mother and brother, rejecting the defendant’s assertion that a trial judge is obligated to provide a methodology as to how he arrived at the calculation of damages in order to allow meaningful review of whether the decree is reasonable.

Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal, in conformity with an increasing trend of according anonymity to adult parties in proceedings, yesterday employed only the initials of a man who was convicted of a Jan. 4, 1999 murder of a 14-year-old during a drive-by-shooting, even though the man’s name appeared in news reports and in an unpublished appellate opinion.

Under California's measure, a lawyer "shall not delegate the practice of law" to generative AI. Lawyers would be required to ⁠take "reasonable steps" to verify the accuracy of all materials produced using AI, including case citations, and correct any false or hallucinated output in any AI-generated material they use.

Stalled plans to turn a remote corner of California into a critical minerals and clean energy mecca have been dealt another setback. A state appeals court ruled this week that Imperial County’s approval of the Hell’s Kitchen lithium and geothermal energy project failed to show it has enough water supply from the dwindling Colorado River to sustain its operation, or to address the potential air quality impacts of diverting more water from the polluted Salton Sea, which has been shrinking for years.