(Subscription required) Staff and the presiding judge were hostile to Judge Tony R. Mallery from the moment he took the bench, a former Lassen County Superior Court operations manager testified on Thursday before a disciplinary panel of the Commission on Judicial Performance.

The court agreed to hear Downey v. City of Riverside to address an issue that’s a perennial favorite of law school moot courts and writing classes — the limits on a bystander’s right to recover for negligent infliction of emotional distress.

In People v. Carney, the Supreme Court today holds that defendants who participated in a gang gun fight can be guilty of first degree murder even though they definitely didn’t fire the shot that killed the victim. The one who did fire that shot was acquitted of murder and convicted only of voluntary manslaughter.

(Subscription required) About six months into her tenure, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero discussed how her upbringing in the Imperial Valley shapes her approach on the bench at an Association of Business Trial Lawyers event Wednesday night in San Francisco.