The Health Officer of San Mateo County has issued a new, generally more restrictive Shelter-In-Place Order effective at 11:59 pm on March 31, 2020 which Order is now in effect until May 3, 2020.   Most of the other Bay Area counties have followed suit or have similar orders in place.  In part, the newly modified…

In the case of Jessop v. City of Fresno (Filed 9/4/2019) D.C. No. 1:15-cv-00316-DAD-SAB, did the Ninth Circuit expand forfeiture in an unusual way?  In an interesting factual case, the Ninth Circuit held it is not a constitutional violation to unlawfully seize $225k when the stolen property is covered by warrant. The nuance being that…

In People v. Duenas, (Case No. B285645) the California Second District Court of Appeals reversed $220 in various fees imposed on a woman for misdemeanor driving offenses.  Velia Duenas was homeless and disabled, and didn’t have the ability to pay.  On appeal, the Second District said the trial court should have assessed whether she…

On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, clarifying the standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of the wage orders adopted by California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”).  The Court held…

Immigrant children who enter the country illegally with their parents have no right to a government-appointed paid lawyer in court, as just recently ruled by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling came in the case of a Honduran boy who arrived in the United States in 2014 at age 13 with a parent…

An ADU, previously known as “in-law” units or “granny flats,” are additional living spaces on single-family lots that have a separate kitchen, bathroom, and exterior access independent of the primary residence. Two bills, SB-1069 and AB-2299 were recently enacted amending provisions of the Government Code, and generally encouraging the building of ADU’s.  These bills require…