William W Bedsworth

September 18, 2024 | The Recorder

"In California, the animal you run over cannot be carted off to your freezer. It must stay by the side of the road. California reserves jurisdiction over dead animals—wild animals, that is, not pets—to state agencies," says Justice William W. Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

9 minute read

September 05, 2024 | The Recorder

"A good portion of our lives is spent learning to identify red flags. And the better we are at it, the better chance we have of surviving to see the next one. Simple as that. But we seem to be losing our respect for red flags," says Justice William W. Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

7 minute read

March 08, 2024 | The Recorder

"I'll be 77 in November, and while that is not exactly 'a good round number,' it seems like a reasonable finish line for a legal career," said Justice William W. Bedsworth, in his latest column announcing his retirement.

By William W. Bedsworth

9 minute read

November 14, 2023 | The Recorder

"I write today to convey the gospel of breast cancer, the good news all those pink ribbons represent. Cancer is not the word it used to be," says Justice William Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

8 minute read

August 22, 2023 | The Recorder

"Now get up, walk out of your office, go to your assistant's desk, put on a smile, and say thank you," says Justice William Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

9 minute read

May 25, 2023 | The Recorder

"It's fine to cite the great philosophers—like Justice Gilbert and I do—but you have to be a lot more careful with your case citations. Older case citations are always greeted with suspicion," says Justice William Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

7 minute read

September 20, 2022 | The Recorder

"Streetlamps are disappearing in Los Angeles, and while you might think the metropolis would be fertile ground for locating another cocaine-swilling misanthrope, the local authorities seem baffled. And apparently Benedict Cumberbatch is unavailable," says Justice William Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

8 minute read

August 18, 2022 | The Recorder

"I tell you all this so you can appreciate how much I identify with the German court that ruled workers' compensation applied to a man who hurt himself getting out of bed. Now that we're all doing so much of our work remotely, I may just move to Germany. They understand people like me there."

By William W. Bedsworth

8 minute read

June 29, 2022 | The Recorder

"If you've ever been subjected to the personal and quirky collection of abbreviated hieroglyphs that make up my longhand, you know that had it not been for the invention of word processing, I would have been murdered by a typist before I reached fifty," says Justice William Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

8 minute read

June 14, 2022 | The Recorder

Judicial profiles are the most educational articles in the local legal paper, "not because of the 30 column inch piece about the judge—which invariably contains several useful nuggets of information and is itself an extremely valuable resource—but because of what they teach about the use of euphemism," says Justice William Bedsworth.

By William W. Bedsworth

10 minute read