(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.

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.

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.

Div. Seven of this district’s Court of Appeal held yesterday that a trial judge erred in ordering a new trial after a jury found for the City of Los Angeles in a case involving allegations that its police force negligently maintained a less-lethal tactical launcher—which was found to have a problem with its targeting system after a protestor was hit just below the eye, causing vision impairment—based on an erroneous understanding of res ipsa loquitur.