Less than 1

This morning on Less than 1: a lawsuit claims an AI algorithm helps major gas retailers illegally coordinate pump prices, and a judge orders Riverside to refund $40.8 million to water customers over unlawful rate transfers. Also: a bipartisan data center energy bill advances in Congress amid mixed reactions, and the Supreme Court bars a lawsuit after prison guards forcibly shaved a Rastafarian inm...

This evening on Less than 1: shareholders sue Uber's board, alleging directors ignored years of passenger safety and compliance failures that have now exposed the company to potentially billions in liability from pending sexual assault claims. Also: Carson residents push to consolidate the next bellwether trial with Los Angeles County's Prologis case as post-trial motions challenging February's $8...

This morning on Less than 1: legislation to finalize the Uber-CAOC rideshare deal is racing toward a Thursday deadline — with more than $150 million in ballot measure spending on the line. Also: a California appeals court revives a lawsuit by 18 former UC Berkeley swimmers alleging years of psychological abuse by their head coach. And: Ford is back in court against a second lemon law firm, this ti...

This evening on Less than 1: the Los Angeles County Bar Association installs a new president and honors judges and legal leaders at its annual dinner. Also: a jury awards $1.9 million in punitive damages against an Orange County family after finding they treated a shared real estate company as a personal piggy bank — with the case's origins in a family dispute over the eldest daughter's choice of...

This morning on Less than 1: fire survivors petition to intervene in California's enforcement proceeding against State Farm, arguing a proposed $2 million penalty falls far short given the scope of alleged claims-handling violations. Also: an Orange County jury hands ASICS a $6.1 million win and rejects retailer Shoebacca's $44 million counterclaims. Plus: Huntington Beach approves a housing plan...

This evening on Less than 1: Ford sues Los Angeles lemon law firm Quill & Arrow, alleging a $25 million billing fraud scheme that used overseas virtual assistants to perform legal work billed as California attorney time. Also: the union representing L.A. County prosecutors files an unfair labor practice claim against Nathan Hochman's office over bad-faith bargaining. And: comedian Carlos Mencia is...

This morning on Less than 1: Judge Charles Breyer is set to hear Elon Musk's bid for a new trial and class decertification in the $2.6 billion Twitter securities case. Also: a discovery fight between Southern California Edison and SoCalGas lands before a judge in the coordinated Eaton Fire litigation. And: plaintiffs defend an $8.8 million verdict over Carson's 2021 odor crisis as defendants push...

This evening on Less than 1: a ballot initiative to dramatically curtail CEQA qualifies for the November ballot — plus an AI legal software company sues a rival over patent infringement, and a deputy DA unseats an incumbent Los Angeles judge in a rare election upset. Also: the FTC sues the leading transgender health care group over allegedly deceptive treatment guidelines. And this week on Bench &...

This morning on Less than 1: a San Bruno explosion victim testifies she was kept in the dark about her family's $28 million settlement — plus Tyra Banks' defamation suit against Netflix tests the limits of documentary storytelling, and California's judicial ethics committee seeks public comment on a spouse-as-counsel appointment question. Also: legal experts say Texas law would make it nearly impo...

This evening on Less than 1: opening statements begin in the State Bar disciplinary trial of a longtime Girardi Keese attorney accused of concealing the diversion of San Bruno settlement funds — plus Adobe is hit with a derivative suit over AI training claims, and OpenAI defeats xAI's trade secrets case. Also: the DOJ moves to dismiss the NAACP's clean air lawsuit against xAI, a judge signals Work...

This morning on Less than 1: a new report ranks LA Superior Court among the nation's top venues for billion-dollar verdicts — plus former oversight commission chairs file a court petition to enforce sheriff subpoenas over use-of-force records, and Google settles a class action for $135 million over unauthorized cellular data use. Also: an Imperial Valley data center developer sues for Colorado Riv...

This evening on Less than 1: California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the DOJ is investigating him and his wife — plus a proposed class action alleges Anthropic misleads subscribers about its premium Claude subscription limits, and Los Angeles's city attorney and Legal Aid clash over a stalled $177 million tenant protection program. Also: the Supreme Court agrees to weigh the prolonged detention of ICE d...

This morning on Less than 1: LA County DA Nathan Hochman asks a judge to halt payouts from a $4 billion childhood sexual abuse settlement over fraud concerns — plus closing arguments in the UGG parent company's patent suit against dupe retailer Quince. Also: California admits to using six high-risk AI systems it failed to report last year, Fox agrees to acquire Roku for $22 billion, and a lawsuit...

This evening on Less than 1: a federal jury awards more than ten million dollars to the family of Adrian Sanchez, fatally shot by an L.A. County Sheriff's deputy during a twenty twenty-one traffic stop — after forensic evidence undermined the deputy's account of the encounter. Also: a federal hearing puts a novel question to the court in a lawsuit accusing Meta of harvesting sensitive health data...

This morning on Less than 1: California lawmakers announce a budget deal that includes three hundred seventy-five million dollars to implement Proposition thirty-six, the twenty twenty-four tough-on-crime initiative that passed without a funding mechanism. Also: Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman asks a judge to halt payments from a four billion dollar child sexual abuse settlemen...

This evening on Less than 1: a mother sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the GPT-4o chatbot reinforced her daughter's suicidal ideation, discouraged her from seeking help and deepened her isolation before her death — the case is expected to join a coordinated proceeding with twelve other wrongful death actions against the company. Plus, from the New York Times: the Postal Service proposes a...

This morning on Less than 1: Global Music Rights sues Music Choice over alleged post-license copyright infringement, and amicus briefs pile up in support of the San Francisco public defender held in contempt for refusing new cases. Also: Anthropic backs mandatory testing for frontier AI models, the L.A. County DA claims up to 80% of claims in a $4 billion sex abuse settlement may be fraudulent, an...

This evening on Less than 1: a Los Angeles jury adds punitive damages to bring the total verdict against Rebecca Grossman and Scott Erickson to one hundred ninety-eight point one million dollars in the deaths of brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander — possibly the largest verdict in California traffic fatality history. Also: UGG parent Deckers goes to trial against online retailer Quince over an allege...

This morning on Less than 1: a judge upholds the $6 million social media addiction verdict against Meta and YouTube, and a Los Angeles jury awards $32 million to the family of a woman who died after decades of exposure to asbestos-contaminated Johnson's Baby Powder. Also: the Palisades Fire arson trial gets underway, the VA scales back its West L.A. veteran housing plan, and a deadline looms for a...

This evening on Less than 1: a California bill advances that would require disclosure of original claim owners in court filings to prevent shell company hiding of assets — plus Los Angeles attorney Paul Kiesel presses his bid to remove the judge in his State Bar discipline case, and Chapman University's first openly gay law dean sues over alleged discriminatory removal. Also: prediction market Kal...

This morning on Less than 1: a federal judge severs copyright claims against major AI companies, forcing separate trials after authors opt out of the Bartz v. Anthropic settlement — plus Christina Shay is sworn in as a magistrate judge for the Central District of California. Also: a former xAI engineer sues over alleged retaliation for AI safety warnings, and emails reveal a pressure campaign to s...

This evening on Less than 1: the 9th Circuit opens a misconduct probe into Judge Ryan Nelson after a parking lot altercation in Idaho. Also: California state attorneys sue under CEQA to block Governor Newsom's return-to-office mandate — but experts warn the union could win the legal fight and still lose the policy battle. And: Peter Grossman faces sharp questioning over asset moves as the Grossman...

This morning on Less than 1: a federal court weighs the future of a consent decree tied to the 2015 Refugio oil spill, and a judge certifies a nationwide class action against Ricoh over contractual price increases. Also: Trump says his team will look into the U.S. taking a stake in AI companies, SoFi Stadium workers vote to authorize a strike ahead of the World Cup, and Monterey Park becomes the f...

This evening on Less than 1: Johnson and Johnson prevails in the second talc bellwether trial, rejecting claims its powders caused ovarian cancer in three women — a split result that could shape settlement talks in more than seventy thousand pending cases. Also: a Los Angeles judge tosses the murder indictment against former LAPD Officer Clifford Proctor in the 2015 Venice Beach shooting of Brendo...

This morning on Less than 1: a Los Angeles judge largely preserves Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company's suit against UCLA, rejecting the university's anti-SLAPP motion as untimely and allowing breach of contract and related claims to proceed. Also: a federal judge throws out a lender challenge to California's subordinate-mortgage foreclosure law, finding sovereign immunity bars the case...