The day after a responsive pleading was due, plaintiff’s lawyer sent defendant a letter and an email telling her that the time to respond was past due and threatening entry of default if a responsive pleading was not filed by the next business day. When a pleading was...
Experienced Real Estate And Business Attorney
Civil Procedure
Fraudulent Conveyance Damages Apply to DELAY’S in paying a judgment! (Berger v. Varum (2019) 35 Cal.App.5th 1013)
Plaintiff sued for fraudulent transfer. Defendants then paid the judgment, but instead of dismissing his complaint, plaintiff amended it to seek damages caused by the delay in paying the judgment. The trial court sustained defendants’ demurrer. On appeal, plaintiff...
Late Fees in a 3 day Notice Are almost always unenforceable (Excellent analysis by the Court)
The primary published case is Del Monte Properties & Investments, Inc. v. Dolan (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th Supp. 20, 24. In Del Monte the Court held that the landlord must prove that the actual losses caused by late payment of rent were extremely difficult or...
Default Judgments (including for accounting and related damages) remain limited to what is set forth in the pleading (Sass v. Cohen (2019) 32 Cal.App.5th 1032.)
Due process prevails. A common mistake is pleading damages (other than as limited in Family/PI/wrongful death cases) according to proof without providing the defendant with a number of possible damages. The result is a default but no money to the plaintiff. The law...
Amended Complaint Must be Filed 9 Court Days Before the Demurrer hearing (CCP §472)
The trial court research attorneys s are now happier! No longer can an amended pleading be filed the morning before the demurrer hearing! As of 2018, amended Code of Civil Procedure §472 now provides: (a) A party may amend its pleading once without leave of the...
Professionalism Trumps Freedom of speech in the court room (which is a good thing) Bus. Code §6068(b)
The moral fiber of our society continues to degrade. The following is an attorney ethics issue and as a reminder attorney’s are held to a higher standard. After a trial on a sexual harassment claim resulting in an $8,080 jury verdict, and a $7,000 costs award,...
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas even, if it caused conception!
Intimate Sexual Contact Alone Does Not Constitute Minimum Contacts. A California woman conceived a child in Connecticut but filed a paternity and child support suit in California against the father living in Connecticut. The trial court denied his man moved to quash...
61% of the time Trial Verdicts Are Usually the Same as a Pre-Trial Settlement Offers
In an article by Sanford Gage, who is a very good mediator, 9,000 California settlement decisions were analyzed over 41 years comparing rejected pretrial settlement offers and actual trial results. Sixty-one percent of the time, the plaintiffs obtained an award that...
GAO Study Shows Federal Court Plaintiffs Only Win 35% Of The Time!
In law school you are taught “if you are a defendant remove the case to the Federal Court”. University of Connecticut law professors Alexandra Lahav and Peter Siegelman studied 30 years of data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts supporting that...
California will now allow out-of-state and foreign lawyers to provide legal services in international commercial arbitrations conducted in California SB 766. (CCP § 1297.185)
International law systems, justice, human rights and global business education concept with world map on a school globe and a gavel on a desk on blue background. The new CCP §1297.185 essentially over rules the 1998 California Supreme Court case known as Birbower...