(Subscription required) The California Office of Tax Appeals addressed “hallucinated or fictitious citations” for the first time in an opinion released this month, warning parties not to name cases without verifying their existence.

(Subscription required) The lawsuit challenges United Water Conservation District's operation, maintenance and water diversions at the Vern Freeman Dam on the Santa Clara River. The case has remained in federal court while U.S. District Judge David O. Carter presided over a related, decade-long Endangered Species Act action involving the same dam.

(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.