California lemon law rules

Overturning a trial court ruling, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District held that teacher tenure laws are constitutional in the case of Vergara v. State of California, decided April 14, 2016.The case involves nine public school students who challenged several provisions of California’s Education Code that govern K-12 public school teachers’ employment. The basis of the challenge is that the tenure, dismissal, and layoff laws result in grossly ineffective teachers being transferred to lower-performing schools with predominantly minority and low-income populations, rather than being terminated; and that; therefore, those students receive an inferior education.  Several associations representing school boards, school superintendents, and school administrators filed amicus briefs in support of the students’ position that the laws are unconstitutional.The following specific provisions of the California Education Code were … [Read more...] about California Teacher Tenure Laws Upheld by Appellate Court

Much of the news we have read over the last twenty years pertaining to the nursing care industry has given us reason for worry and fear. We’ve watched lawmakers make prodigious cuts to funding and for profit companies pervade the market; all while finding and creating numerous loopholes to recuse themselves of liability. A huge retaliatory blow was struck on behalf of seniors everywhere, however, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services promised to withhold funding from the corporations that found a way to deny many victims of nursing abuse the right to bring the offending homes to court.Nursing Industry Forces Arbitration upon Residents of Assisted Care CommunitiesThe right to sue negligent corporations for any injuries their actions may cause is taken for granted, so the families of many nursing neglect and abuse victims were shocked to learn that they had forfeited this right when admitting their relatives into nursing homes that snuck arbitration clauses into their … [Read more...] about Government Agency Denies Funding to Nursing Homes Requiring Arbitration Clauses

Adam Krohn sues debt collectors for unfair practices, but he found himself in a role reversal last year when calling a fellow California lawyer who owed him money on a judgment.“He told me, ‘Come get it. I want you to know what it’s like to try to collect a debt,’ ” recalls Krohn. So he had a writ of execution served on Scott Carruthers, who Krohn says picked up another $90 in costs for the pleasure of teasing his adversary before paying up on a consumer’s Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claim.Carruthers did not respond to interview requests.Their tangle, ongoing with new cases in which Krohn says Carruthers is avoiding service altogether, offers a humorous glimpse into a decidedly unfunny area of the law: debt collection.With the nation so awash in debt—the Federal Reserve pegs “consumer credit outstanding” at more than $2.4 trillion—getting payment from those who owe money has become a huge business. And a big mess, with … [Read more...] about Payback: Lawyers on Both Sides of Collection are Feeling Debt’s Sting

Federal court jurors received lit­tle guidance when they considered whether to award punitive dam­­­­­­­ages to a Canadian brother and sister who suffered hundreds of bites from bedbugs as they slept in their Chicago motel room.All they had in the diversity case was a one-paragraph Illinois pattern jury instruction. Without elaboration, the instruction basically told jurors that they simply had to find the motel owner’s conduct “willful and wanton” and to conclude that “justice and the public good re­quire” damages—on top of a compensatory award—in “an amount which will serve to punish the defendant and to de­ter the defendant and others from similar conduct.”The jurors obliged and handed Burl and Desiree Mathias of Toronto $372,000 in punitive damages—more than 37 times the accompanying $10,000 compensatory award—against Accor Economy Lodging Inc., owner of a former … [Read more...] about Punitive Precision

In May 2014, the Trust acting on behalf of the estate of Randy Wolfe (a/k/a Randy California) of the rock group Spirit filed a copyright infringement suit against Led Zeppelin related to the first chords in the band’s most famous song, “Stairway to Heaven.” See Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, 15-cv-03462, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles). The Trust brought the case against Led Zeppelin after a 2014 Supreme Court decision opened the door for a broader interpretation of the time frame to seek damages for copyright infringement under the U.S. Copyright Act. See Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 1962 (2014). The Petrella decision limited the application of the defense of laches and permitted lawsuits to be brought involving older copyrighted works with more recent acts of infringement that fall within the statute of limitations pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 507(b). Hence, in the Skidmore case, despite the decades-old circulation of … [Read more...] about Led Zeppelin Prevails in Copyright Infringement Case: Now on Appeal in Ninth Circuit