Div. Eight of this district’s Court of Appeal held Friday that a judge did not abuse her discretion in awarding spousal support to a woman who had previously been convicted of domestic violence against her then-husband despite the existence of a statutory presumption against such payments, rejecting the contention that the jurist conflated the factors applicable to the appropriateness of alimony in general with the analysis relevant to rebuttal.

Div. Eight of this district’s Court of Appeal has affirmed the conviction of a man who was accused of committing a carjacking that occurred just after he crashed his own vehicle into a freeway barrier, rejecting his contention that a judge erred in failing to instruct on an “unconsciousness” defense based on witness testimony indicating that the suspect had a gash to his head, was repeating himself, and had insisted the victim’s car was his own.

A wealth adviser who gambled with the portfolio of a client, now age 90, and caused assets to dwindle from a value of $2,616,421 in August 2019 to $475,099.23 in December 2020, can be held liable for financial elder abuse though he did not pocket any of the property, Div. One of this district’s Court of Appeal has declared in affirming a $6 million award plus three-quarters of a million dollars in attorney fees.

(Subscription required) A childhood fascination with his mother's court-reporting work helped set Judge Charlie L. Hill Jr. on a path through employment law, LAUSD and eventually the bench.