AB 1071 provides three much-needed fixes to the Racial Justice Act (RJA), improving access to counsel, information, and remedies. Starting in January, courts must appoint an attorney to anyone unable to afford one who wishes to bring an RJA claim. AB 1071 also ensures people can obtain the evidence necessary to prove discrimination, closing an information gap that set many up to fail. Finally, the bill reaffirms that courts must impose remedies when racial bias is proven, and that judges must have the flexibility to match remedies to the harm.

Senate Bill 27, which took effect in 2026, will expand the CARE Act to include individuals with bipolar I disorder with psychotic features. The bill also allows nurse practitioners and physician assistants to sign mental health declarations, thereby increasing provider capacity.

Div. Eight of this district’s Court of Appeal has held that a trial judge properly denied an anti-SLAPP motion filed by a journalist, who was White House assistant press secretary under President George W. Bush, as to claims that in 2022 and 2023, he secretly recorded phone calls with higher-ups at a financial institution for which he worked in violation of California law.

Div. Six of this district’s Court of Appeal held yesterday that a petition for resentencing, filed under a statutory scheme adopted after the Legislature amended the definition of murder in 2019 to limit implied malice liability, may be denied at the prima facie stage based on judicial remarks made after a bench trial indicating that the defendant personally acted with the intent to kill.