California Case Law

Little did we know that robots found a way around hearsay decades ago. Judge Thomas Hastings knew it then. He was pondering a hearsay objection to computer records being offered into evidence. "This is a very hypertechnical objection," he said in People v. Hawkins. "[T]he problem in this analysis is simply this: There is no declarant. The declarant is the computer. It's not a person." Records admitted, and that's how computers first got around the hearsay rule.

Judge John Wiley, Jr. gets rave reviews for being a "very thorough," intelligent," "gentleman and a scholar." So it was with respect when an appeals court reviewed the judge's invitation to review his ruling in the Southern California Gas Company Gas Leak Cases. After all, it was about a leak of 190,000 metric tons of methane that put 15,000 residents out of their homes.

It's bad enough when a rapper talks about killing people, but when a rapper actually kills somebody ... Ravinseh Singh, more a killer than a rapper, murdered Joe Montoya when he shot him point-blank in the face. Singh added three more shots to make sure: twice in the stomach and once in the groin. Appealing his conviction, Singh argued the trial judge should not have allowed jurors to hear rap lyrics he wrote, including "two to the gut, watch you shut your eyes slow.

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The California Court of Appeals recently held that Bill Cosby could be liable for public comments his ex-lawyer made on his behalf. This was the second time the California Court of Appeals took up defamation issues involving Cosby and Janice Dickinson, who accused Cosby of raping her in 1982. The opinion came out a day after Bill Cosby and Janice Dickenson settled for what Dickinson’s attorney described as an “epic amount.

The facts of this case are pretty unremarkable. Guy (Arshavir Iskanian) drives a limo, gets into a dispute with his employer (CLS Transportation). Guy sues. Except, there was an arbitration clause. The trial court ordered arbitration, pursuant to the employment contract. An appellate panel reversed, with instructions for the trial court to consider Gentry v.