An employee’s claim of abusive on-the-job treatment based on his homosexuality constitutes an allegation of “sexual harassment,” Div. One of this district’s Court of Appeal has held, declaring that this renders his causes of action exempt from arbitration, under a federal statute.

Div. Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has held that repeated references by the prosecution’s expert witness to the defendant’s membership in a Hispanic gang—which he testified  are groups associated with violence and criminality—did not run afoul of the 2020 statute barring convictions predicated on the accused’s ancestry..

(Subscription required) After nearly two decades prosecuting misdemeanor cases for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, Commissioner Aleen M. Avanesian now presides over child support and parentage matters, emphasizing careful preparation, patience and ensuring every litigant feels heard.

Div. Four of the First District Court of Appeal has held that, at evidentiary hearings aimed at determining whether retroactive amendments to the felony murder rule undermine a defendant’s conviction, courts are to ask whether prosecutors have shown that the suspect is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and not whether the suspect could be convicted of the charge under current law.