Paul Elias

July 15, 1999 | Law.com

U.S. District Judge Fern Smith may have left the bench two weeks ago, but that didn't stop her from rebuking San Francisco attorney Dennis Cunningham yesterday. Judge Smith dismissed most of a civil rights case filed by Cunningham on behalf of the family of Eugene "Bear" Lincoln and others. The case involves claims against law enforcement agencies stemming from a manhunt at a Northern California Indian reservation.

By Paul Elias

3 minute read

March 08, 1999 | Law.com

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski on Thursday teed off on three colleagues with a blistering criticism of an opinion that condemned mandatory minimum sentences.

By By Paul Elias

4 minute read

May 27, 1999 | Law.com

By Paul Elias

4 minute read

April 24, 2006 | Law.com

California's novel, $3 billion stem cell research institute is a legitimate state agency, and two lawsuits challenging its constitutionality have no merit, a state judge ruled Friday. The decision came a month after a four-day trial in which lawyers with connections to anti-abortion groups claimed the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine violated California law because it wasn't a true state agency and its managers had a host of conflicts of interest.

By Paul Elias

2 minute read

March 25, 1999 | Law.com

California's unique "anti-SLAPP" state law, which provides severe sanctions for meritless suits filed to chill free speech and the protests of an opponent, gained a foothold in federal court with a favorable 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Wednesday. The court held that the state's law against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, which grants attorneys fees to the prevailing party, can be folded into federal diversity actions.

By Paul Elias

3 minute read

June 14, 1999 | Law.com

A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the California last week deemed rotten the evidentiary fruits plucked from a federal wiretap, an action that has been rare in recent years. Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ruled that a wiretap application did not have the appropriate authorization from DOJ officials. The ruling casts into doubt the prosecution of Victor Nolasco-Perez, one of 15 co-defendants in an Oakland drug case.

By Paul Elias

3 minute read

February 10, 2003 | Law.com

Two biotechnology companies have agreed to pay a combined $110 million to settle a suit filed by farmers who claimed they were hurt by consumer fears generated when unapproved biotech corn was discovered in the food supply. A federal judge in Chicago preliminarily approved the deal between the farmers and StarLink Logistics, a subsidiary of StarLink creator Aventis SA, and Avanta USA, which owns StarLink distributor Garst Seed Co.

By Paul Elias

2 minute read

June 18, 1999 | Law.com

Expressing displeasure with federal prosecutors' continued defense of the practice of talking to unrepresented defendants -- which partly contradicts California State Bar ethical guidelines -- U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker on Thursday nonetheless refused to throw out an indictment because of it.

By Paul Elias

3 minute read

December 20, 1999 | Law.com

It sounds almost like a bad lawyer joke: Two law partners and buddies collide while skiing and one sues the other. But it happened, and it's one of "California's most outrageous lawsuits of the decade," according to the not-exactly-neutral Sacramento tort reform group Civil Justice Association of California.

By Paul Elias

3 minute read

September 10, 1999 | Law.com

Bucking a nationwide trend that has had one public school race-based admission policy after another fall by the wayside, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a popular elementary school that serves as a laboratory for the University of California can continue to consider ethnicity in deciding who to enroll. The majority found that the admission policy was "narrowly tailored" and served a "compelling state interest," trumping the Equal Protection Clause.

By Paul Elias

3 minute read