Sometimes you have to compel the opposition's response to discovery. But before you can move to compel, you are required to "meet and confer." If you do the "meet and confer" wrong, your discovery motion will be doomed.

A common area of abuse occurs when attorneys instruct their clients to not answer a deposition question. Instructions to refuse to answer should occur only in response to questions implicating a privilege. All other instructions to not answer questions for relevance, for hearsay, or even for “harassment,” are improper.

The firm is pleased to report that in a hard fought matter spanning eight years, after a trial, and after four years on appeal, the California Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Tong Robbins’ clients, holding, in plain language, “We agree with plaintiffs.”

Much litigation is consumed in discovery, the formal process of asking questions and obtaining answers. Discovery responses are required to be code compliant, i.e. in accord with the provisions of the California Discovery Act. Failure to make code compliant responses is an easy way for a respondent to lose a discovery motion; and demanding code compliance is an easy way for the propounding party to win.

Sometimes after a plaintiff has lost a particularly acrimonious action the defendant will sue back, arguing that the original lawsuit was frivolous, brought in bad faith, malicious, or otherwise improper. In this second action, the former plaintiff (now defendant) will typically defend by arguing that she did nothing wrong; she was simply following her attorney’s advice. This is not the Nuremberg defense. It is known as the “advice of counsel” affirmative defense.

Employers want to save money by categorizing their workers as "independent contractors" instead of "employees." Some of these employers even use hiring agencies or labor brokers so the employer can say they never "hired" the workers in the first place. But this is just a scam. Generally speaking, workers are employees for the company for which they perform work--regardless of who "hires" them.

QUESTION: I think I was tricked when I bought a used Alfa Romeo. Unfortunately, I signed a contract that says the car is sold "as-is," that there is no warranty, and the seller makes no promises about the condition of the car. Does that mean I can't sue no matter what lies the seller told me before I signed the contract?

Mechanics Liens are powerful devices to ensure contractors to get paid for their work. But property owners have defenses.

QUESTION: A Tenant signs a lease but then Landlord changes it and then (strangely) refuses to sign the altered document. Is this an enforceable lease in its original or modified terms?

Beyond lunch breaks, employees also must receive ten-minute rest periods. Here are the rules:

As a consequence of the strange contours of California’s spoliation doctrine, there may be circumstances in which a party is better off stealing and destroying evidence than allowing that evidence to be used at trial.

Land-use litigation is often won or lost before the parties file suit. Parties unaccustomed to land-use litigation may overlook the importance of the administrative process which can result in procedural defects that preclude judicial review.

There are all kinds of work that copyright law cannot protect. These “uncopyrightable” works can be freely copied and exploited by everyone.

Copyright law protects certain creative works for a certain period of time.

The most significant fights in copyright infringement lawsuits are (1) did the defendant actually copy the protected work; and (2) is the copied work the same or substantially similar to the copyrighted work.

Most arbitrations are handled by the three big providers: JAMS, AAA, and ADR Services. But when it comes to the amount of discovery permitted during your arbitration, these three services are not the same.

It is unlawful to file a frivolous and malicious lawsuit. The parties (and lawyers) who bring these baseless suits and then lose, can themselves be sued-back under the theory of the "malicious prosecution" tort.