Secondary practice area
Second District affirms denial of an anti-SLAPP motion in a family corporation dispute and reaffirms that orders denying related attorney fee motions are not separately appealable, deepening a split with other appellate divisions.
Third District holds that an attorney with a competing lien can bring a single declaratory relief action against both the client and the prior attorney to resolve the validity, amount, and priority of all attorney liens on settlement proceeds.
Second District affirms a trial-court ruling declaring an inactive California attorney a vexatious litigant and barring his future pro per suits absent pre-filing approval and posted security, in light of a long history of dismissed federal cases and frivolous filings.
Second District holds California exemption law applies to collection actions in California courts regardless of where the judgment debtor lives, and that funds rolled over from a surrendered life insurance policy into IRAs are not categorically exempt from levy.
Fourth District affirms denial of a Song-Beverly plaintiff’s attorney-fee motion as untimely, holding the motion had to be served within 180 days of the court-ordered dismissal date even though the parties had not formally filed a dismissal.
Fourth District holds that a court-appointed receiver is protected by quasi-judicial immunity for discretionary acts and decisions, affirming the grant of an anti-SLAPP motion to strike claims against the receiver brought by a criminal defendant and his family.
First District holds a parking-garage operator’s collection of customers’ license-plate information without the publicly available ALPR policy California law requires is itself the kind of harm that supports a private suit under the ALPR Law.
Los Angeles Appellate Division reverses an unlawful-detainer default judgment and terminating sanction, holding the trial court abused its discretion by retroactively shortening Code of Civil Procedure section 1987’s 10-day notice period to 91 minutes and then striking the tenant’s answer for not appearing.
Second District holds a personal-injury plaintiff’s pretrial settlement offer conditioned on the defendant’s insurer’s consent was a valid Code of Civil Procedure section 998 offer, because insurer consent is a necessary condition of any insured-defendant settlement whether stated or not.
Third District dismisses plaintiffs’ third appeal in an assisted-living negligence case, holding a postjudgment costs order entered after a voluntary dismissal without prejudice does not provide a back-door route to appellate review of an underlying summary-adjudication ruling.