Acquittal of a defendant by a judge on a false-imprisonment count did not preclude the conviction of that man by a jury two days later, in the same case, of kidnapping the victim, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has held.

The Court of Appeal for this district has held that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge erred in denying a Franklin motion, which is made to preserve mitigating evidence for use years hence at a youth offender parole hearing, rejecting the rationale that the defendant could have put anything of potential value to him on the record at the time of sentencing,

(Subscription required) The state Supreme Court has agreed to review a 2nd District Court of Appeal ruling that upheld a 30% cut to plaintiff's attorney fees. The justices' decision could clarify whether trial judges must provide detailed explanations for across-the-board reductions or continue to exercise broad discretion.

(Subscription required) How are copyright holders to prove their works were used to train AI models if the details about the vast data sets used for such training are kept secret? That’s a dilemma that surfaced last week when a federal judge dismissed a claim of direct infringement raised by a group of authors.