Bench & Bar

Cite Out at the Big Nerd Corral Benjamin G. Shatz stages The Bluebook and the California Style Manual as gunslingers fighting for supremacy under Rule 1.200, with practitioner survey data giving the Yellowbook a real edge. Licensed in Illinois, untouchable in California: The extraordinary career of Sidney Korshak William M. Paparian traces how an unlicensed Chicago lawyer ran labor deals and Holly...

Columns in this episode: After J.O., when should attorneys expect a CCP 170.6 challenge? J.O. v. Superior Court stripped blanket CCP 170.6 challenges of their immunity from attack. Trial and litigation attorney James G. Perry asks the harder question: when unrelated attorneys all paper the same judge, how does anyone prove the coordinated "policy" Batson burden-shifting demands? An extraordinary r...

Stories in this episode of Bench & Bar: Inconceivable! Judges mangling famous lines from literature Glendale Courthouse Judge Ashfaq G. Chowdhury traces the misused phrase "more honored in the breach than the observance" from Hamlet to its loose courtroom life, crediting Justice Van Dyke's precise 1899 use in Wright v. Eastlick. We Came to Be Plaintiff Lawyers Litigation law clerk Imdad Rahman...

In this week's episode: With all due respect, it means the opposite Baruch C. Cohen of the Law Office of Baruch C. Cohen APLC examines the courtroom phrase "with all due respect" and what it signals when counsel deploys it against a tentative ruling already committed to writing. Cohen argues the disclaimer is a shield that reveals the absence of the respect it claims, and that the most experienced...

In this episode of Bench & Bar: The push to rein in discovery abuse Retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Independent Calendar Judge Mel Red Recana responds to Judge Lawrence Riff's 10 Principles for Fixing Civil Discovery, arguing that cultural reform alone isn't enough. Recana calls for embedding the principles into daily courtroom practice, local rules, and legislation modeled after CCP...

In this episode: Don't sign blind: How Campos redefines judicial responsibility Bernard C. Barmann Jr. of the Metro Justice Building contends that In re Domestic Partnership of Torres Campos and Munoz extends citation verification obligations directly to the bench. With nearly 1,000 U.S. hallucination incidents logged as of May 2026, judges who sign proposed orders containing unverified authoritie...

In This Episode " I attended a law, AI and child safety conference. What I heard was shocking " Zachary N. Zaharoff of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy reports that a Media Law Resource Center conference on child safety online was dominated by corporate liability strategy, not child welfare. Platform attorneys should expect Section 230 and First Amendment defenses to remain the industry's primary sh...

In This Episode "Courts Ordered to Police AI Without a Budget" William Slomanson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Thomas Jefferson School of Law In re Domestic Partnership of Campos and Munoz put the problem in sharp relief: California's 4th District reversed a court order built on hallucinated AI citations. Standard 10.80b3 now requires judicial officers to verify AI-generated material — but no...