News & Publications

Protecting Attorney Disqualification Orders from Reversal, Verdict Magazine (Volume 3, 2013)

Creating an Appealable Judgment, Los Angles Daily Journal (December 12, 2013)

When a trial court dismisses one cause of action but leaves others intact, the parties have very limited options for immediate appellate review. The Supreme Court has held that the parties cannot create an appealable judgment by dismissing the remaining claims without prejudice while agreeing

Appeals, Writs and Summary Judgment, Los Angeles Daily Journal (October 22, 2013)

Summary adjudication motions have the potential to dramatically narrow a case before trial, but rulings on the motions are not appealable until the end of the case. In an October 22, 2013 Daily Journal article entitled “Appeals, writs and summary judgment,” Alana Rotter discusses the

In Practice: ‘Kurwa’ Shuts a Door to an Early Appeal

The Recorder (October 17, 2013) When a trial court decides a core issue in a pretrial proceeding but leaves peripheral claims pending, appellate relief is generally unavailable because there is no final judgment.  Litigants have tried to create the necessary finality by voluntarily dismissing the

In a Verdict Magazine article, Bob Olson and Gary Wax discuss the meaning of “sudden” in the context of an insurance policy that covers “sudden and accidental” water discharges, but not slow leaks

The “Metaphysical Moment” When a Pipe Begins to Leak Is Not a “Sudden” Discharge Where Damage Only Results From a Gradual or Continuous Process (2013) 2 Verdict 13. In Brown v. Mid-Century Ins. Co. (2013) 215 Cal.App.4th 841, the California Court of Appeal rejected the

The “Metaphysical Moment” When a Pipe Begins to Leak Is Not a “Sudden” Discharge Where Damage Only Results From a Gradual or Continuous Process (2013) 2 Verdict 13.

What is “sudden?” In Verdict magazine, Gary J. Wax and Robert A. Olson discuss Brown v. Mid-Century Ins. Co. (2013) 215 Cal.App.4th 841, a published decision from the California Court of Appeal, Second District, which holds that a water leak from a home’s plumbing system

Wrongful Termination Claims Against Government Employers – Theories of Liability and Defense Under California Law: An Overview (2013).

How Appellate Courts Review Attorney Disqualifications, Los Angeles Daily Journal (July 9, 2013)

An order disqualifying an attorney is immediately appealable, and the Court of Appeal reviews such orders rigorously. In a July 9, 2013 Daily Journal article, Alana Rotter discusses two recently-published appellate decisions that reverse disqualification orders based on claimed conflicts of interest, highlighting the value

Case Highlights Importance of Timely Post-trial Motions, Los Angeles Daily Journal (June 11, 2013)

It’s important to correctly calculate the deadline for filing a federal appeal: File late, and the court will dismiss your appeal without ever reaching the merits. In this article, Alana Rotter discusses how post-trial motions impact the deadline calculations, and describes the cautionary tale of

Your Skills: Between Trial and Appeal, There’s a Record, S.F. Recorder

Because it is the appellant who must affirmatively demonstrate error, there is no short cut to reviewing the entire record.  One needle-in-a-haystack piece of evidence or buried court finding can defeat what might otherwise appear to be an airtight appellate argument. In a 2013 Recorder