A judge in a marital-dissolution case may whittle down an award of attorney fees based on equitable considerations despite the spouses having contractually agreed that the prevailing party in a dispute would be entitled a reasonable amount to cover lawyer bills, Div. Six of the Court of Appeal for this district held on Friday.

A long-running request by a man who spent more than a decade in prison to have his conviction for serving as a lookout during the notorious 1992 “honor roll murder” of a teen by his high school-age peers overturned has been denied by an Orange County judge.

The Inland Empire remains well short of the number of judges it needs to keep up with high caseloads, California’s top justice recently told state lawmakers. A Riverside Superior Court spokesperson said there’s still a gap between the number of funded and authorized judgeships and the number the county still needs to keep up with demand.

In a rare move, the state Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions and death sentence Monday of a man who was found guilty of murdering his mother and the police chief who tried to protect her. The court said the trial judge wrongly seated a juror who was friends with the police chief and had planned to attend his funeral.