Recent Articles

Overview: Is there any advantage when buying a used car in California to buy a so-called ‘Certified’ used vehicle? What exactly does that mean?  To find out read this week's Law Review where Jim Porter analyzes a new federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision against CarMax who provide their ‘Certified’ used car buyers a [...]

This San Francisco‑based Court of Appeal decision balances the tension between technological advancements brought on by wireless companies and a community’s interest in maintaining aesthetics.  On just about any street or highway in America we find telephone, cable, electrical, internet and wireless lines and equipment. Where do telephone and wireless companies get the right to [...]

Overview: Starbucks was sued in a class action (Fredrickson v. Starbucks) filed by three of its former baristas (you will soon know where that term comes from), for withholding federal and state taxes from tips received by the coffee servers.  The baristas claimed such tax withholding violated the law; the federal Court of Appeals overturned [...]

Overview: In a long awaited decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this month unanimously upheld the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s 2012 Regional Plan Update, a planning document culminating 10 years of public hearings and processing, including NEPA compliance.  The new Regional Plan had been challenged in federal court by the Sierra Club and a [...]

Overview: Sometimes trying to fix a problem, when you have no particular expertise in that field, leads you to more trouble than what you originally faced.  Doing your own brain surgery comes to mind, as does writing your own estate plan.  Here’s a story about a man who didn’t heed this warning, and the outcome [...]

Overview: This Law Review, as Jim Porter himself writes is ‘genuinely boring’, having to do with Cal Fire Mutual Aid Firefighting Contracts. Specifically, do general laws allowing Cal Fire to recover its fire suppression costs from other agencies trump or defer to Mutual Aid Contracts between Cal Fire and local fire departments. Clue: Cal Fire [...]

Overview: Bulwer‑Lytton time. Round two.  The Bulwer-Lytton contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.  It takes its name from the novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who began a novel with: “It was a dark and stormy night.”  But you know that.  See if you can find the ringer...   She walked toward [...]

Overview: This week Jim Porter presents his second of two Voter Endorsement columns. This article features his analysis of the 17 State Propositions which are  complicated, in fact, some are intentionally complicated by special interests to confuse voters.  Read up.   Last week we gave you our recommendations for local and state-wide candidates and YES [...]

Overview: Jim Porter’s most popular Law Review column is probably his Voter’s Guide. Read this law review to find out his recommendations for the upcoming election—for better or worse, and this year is surely for the worse. For endorsements from a moderate Democrat, this column is the go to gold standard, unless you are a [...]