Practice Area Corner Archives

“Don’t Just Do Something—Sit There!”

Just as case law decided decades earlier still guides the outcome of cases today, our long history as peripatetic hunters and gatherers shapes our experiences today. The sympathetic nervous system, designed to trigger the “fight or flight” actions to help…

Rule 1.13 Likely Requires a Lawyer to “Report Up” an Instruction to “Bury the Evidence”

You are outside litigation counsel for a corporate client defending a personal injury case. The plaintiff issues a formal demand for security footage of her fall on your client’s premises. You have the footage in your possession – and it…

Legal Ethics and COVID-19

As we navigate the challenges of representing clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to remain mindful of our obligations under the California Rules of Professional Conduct (CRPC). A recent Legal Ethics Corner (To Be Diligent, BASF Bulletin, May 2020)…

Think Your Client Is Up To No Good? You May Have a Duty to Inquire

Practitioners should be aware of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) recent pronouncement that lawyers may have a “duty to inquire” in certain circumstances to avoid “advising or assisting a client in conduct the lawyer ‘knows’ is criminal or fraudulent.” Plaintiffs…

Boilerplate Provisions in Family Law

In order to craft strong, enforceable family law agreements, attorneys must consider incorporating certain provisions. This article sets forth a small selection of important provisions to consider. Governing Law If the agreement is drafted in California, include a provision that…

Video Conferencing: Five Tips to Help You Show Your Best Side

Video conferencing platforms have been active for a few years, but legal staff rarely needed to attend one nor know how to use them. Mid-March 2020, however, with the spread of COVID-19, work life as we knew it had changed.…

Grandson Had a Right to Notice That He Got the Heave-Ho

McKie Roth died in 1988 with a will that established a trust for his wife, Yvonne. Upon her death, the trustee was to distribute twenty-five percent of the trust assets to her son from a prior marriage and twenty-five percent…

New State And Local Laws Add to Rent and Eviction Control Complexities

In addition to temporary eviction moratoriums, the new Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) and recent amendments to San Francisco legislation create complicated, longer-term issues. State Law AB 1482 creates a rent increase cap, just cause provisions for eviction, and increased…

The Challenge of Imbalance

Where persons in a marital or nonmarital relationship have relatively equal bargaining power, that balance of power can help them dissolve those relationships amicably and reasonably, without a great deal of assistance from either attorneys or the court. In many…

How Third-Party Contracting Robs Your Clients

As a practical matter, if we get nothing for the case, we eat the costs we advanced. If we get a favorable verdict or settlement, the client’s net is less. Court reporters and clients are getting less Lawyers are…

To Be Diligent

The California Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.3 imposes a separate duty on attorneys to be diligent in their representation of clients. Specifically, Rule 1.3 provides: “(a) A lawyer shall not intentionally, repeatedly, recklessly or with gross negligence fail…

Utah Sister Has No Standing in Sibling Rivalry

Grethe Jensen had two daughters, Kari in California and Trine in Utah. Kari urged her 89-year-old mother to sell her house and buy a place jointly with Kari in Ventura so that Kari could care for her. Things soon went…

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