Recent Articles

I’m just plain out of ideas for writing a Law Review this week. There’s no shortage of actual legal cases to brief, but they’re either too complicated, not of general interest or too boring to work into a column. So let me bore you with a couple of potentially funny lawyer-related pieces.    Porter, Porter, [...]

You’ve probably been asking yourself whether non-verbal conduct may constitute a “statement” under California penal codes.  I’ve been wondering the same thing.  If I went up to Truckee’s esteemed Police Chief Rob Leftwich and did the “slit the throat” hand gesture and pointed my finger pistol (thumb up, index finger pointed forward) at Chief Rob, [...]

One of the many benefits of our Sierra Region is the wide variety of available public and private land for recreation.    Two Laws Protecting Land Owners In 1963, California adopted the Recreational Use Statute (Civil Code Section 846) which makes private land owners immune from liability for injuries suffered by people who enter their [...]

California Constitution, article XX, section 22, prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages to persons under 21years of age.  It’s a misdemeanor to sell to anyone under 21.  Some would argue if you’re old enough to drive, vote and fight for your country, you should be able to have a beer.  I leave that for another [...]

Overview: Surrogacy agreements, where a woman becomes a gestational carrier for would-be parents, are becoming more common.  In our case today, the would-be father’s sperm and ova from an anonymous donor were used for in vitro fertilization resulting in triplets.  Be careful what you wish for.       Surrogacy Arrangement In 2015, Father and surrogacy [...]

Overview: Today’s Law Review is geared to builders. The California Civil Code requires owners to pay general contractors and general contractors to pay subcontractors promptly or face severe consequences. Many builders have no clue about these useful so-called prompt payment codes. Owner Must Pay General Contractor Under Civil Code Section 8800, an owner must [...]

Overview: Banana Republic frequently features ‘40% off’ sales, and I am a regular customer at the Reno Sparks Outlet Store, however not everyone is as enamored, as the Banana was sued in a class action for advertising 40% off but not also disclosing that not everything in the store was on sale.  The plaintiffs succeeded [...]

Overview: Think twice before you cut or trim your neighbor’s trees to improve your view. California's laws for wrongful and malicious tree and timber cutting just got enhanced by the new case of Fulle v. Kanani, where the Court of Appeal allowed treble damages not only for the cost to repair the harm to the property [...]

Overview: Jim Porter had fun this week writing about the most downloaded woman on the Internet, a soft porn star named Danni Ashe who claimed she was defamed when everyone’s favorite tabloid, the Daily Mail, wrote an inflammatory story on a porn star in LA testing positive for HIV --with a photo of Danni, later [...]