Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has almost penalized a pro per appellant for filing a brief containing phony citations, apparently the product of artificial intelligence “hallucinations,” but, after ordering payment of $500 by her, declared that “[e]xecution of the sanction is suspended.”

(Subscription required) Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maria Jhai credits her background in anthropology, federal prosecution, and innocence work with teaching her the importance of questioning assumptions, listening carefully and approaching each case with an open mind. 

The Commission on Judicial Appointments will hold public in-person hearings in San Francisco on Aug. 6 to consider four appointments to California’s Courts of Appeal in Ventura, Los Angeles, Fresno, and San Jose.

A company that required its employees to remain on the premises during 15-minute breaks ran afoul of a requirement that employers not exercise control over activities engaged in during rest periods, the Third District Court of Appeal declared yesterday, broadening a 2016 holding by the California Supreme Court and, as the appellant sees it, contracting that decision.