(Subscription required) "Commissioner Thomas is an exceptional and intelligent bench officer," [Matthew A. Breddan} wrote. "We are lucky to have her in family law. She reads everything, knows the law and manages her calendar with efficiency. She does not tolerate gamesmanship and takes a child-focused approach to all cases (in which there are children at issue.)"

The defendant in an action seeking an order for her to stay away from her former boyfriend was wrongfully denied the opportunity to testify even though her lawyer said after the plaintiff testified that he had no witnesses to present, Div. One of the Court of Appeal for this district held yesterday.

Acquittal of a defendant by a judge on a false-imprisonment count did not preclude the conviction of that man by a jury two days later, in the same case, of kidnapping the victim, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has held.

The Court of Appeal for this district has held that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge erred in denying a Franklin motion, which is made to preserve mitigating evidence for use years hence at a youth offender parole hearing, rejecting the rationale that the defendant could have put anything of potential value to him on the record at the time of sentencing,