(Subscription required) "I always allow both sides to give me their presentation of the facts and any circumstances and aggravation or mitigation," she explained. "And then based on the totality of what's going on and knowing what the defendant's going to have to admit if he wants to resolve, then I'll say, 'I believe this case is worth x.'"

(Subscription required) Sixty-one cases have been confirmed at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, the main site for civil cases, and 16 at the Metropolitan Courthouse that handles mostly misdemeanors and traffic cases in downtown Los Angeles, according to the department.

On the podcast, Howe says that Kruger — who served six years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General and as Acting Principal Deputy Solicitor General, and who argued 12 cases in the high Court — was “regarded as a rock star in the SG’s office.”

A federal appeals court says the Trump administration legally barred thousands of interstate truck drivers in California from taking meal and rest breaks the state had allowed, a decision that truckers and unions will ask the incoming Biden administration to reverse.