Div. One of the Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday imposed a $3,000 sanction on the Santa Monica law firm of Laurel Employment Law, APC based on it having advised the court that a settlement had been reached when it hadn’t been, causing a scheduled oral argument to be cancelled, not responding to an order to show cause re sanctions, and its two lawyers with knowledge of the matter failing to appear at the hearing.

(Subscription required) Malcolm Vaughn sits in a Solano County jail cell, accused of attempted second degree robbery after he paid $2 for a $2.50 donut, then struggled with the shopkeeper's son and left without the cruller. Also charged with drug possession, he has been locked up since June. He's among the latest clients of Civil Rights Corps, a legal advocacy nonprofit that partners with public defenders' offices around California to file habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people in jail awaiting trial who remain detained solely because they are unable to pay bail.

With little prospect of fending off President Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress or at the ballot box, California has turned, once again, to the courts. With considerable success so far. In lawsuits filed or joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, federal judges have blocked the Trump administration’s freeze on virtually all domestic federal funding and mass layoffs in agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education and the AmeriCorps volunteer program.

The Court of Appeal for this district has reversed an order denying a motion to set aside a default judgment on the ground that it is void, but did so without determining whether it actually was, as the defendant contended in the trial court, a nullity.