Laypersons – both consumers and businesspeople – frequently assume that liability releases are enforceable.  Consumers assume that releases preclude them from seeking relief; business owners assume that releases protect them from expensive litigation.  They’re wrong.  In California, as elsewhere, waivers and releases are subject to attack. In Eriksson v. Nunnink (1/10/11) ( No. E049292), the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District held that a written release of liability signed in the context of sports or recreational programs or services may release simple negligence, but not...

The first rule of Fight Club is “never talk about Fight Club.”  By contrast, the first rule of legal advocacy is, “if you want to persuade judges, never tell them what you think of their decisions.” For most lawyers, this rule is obvious, if occasionally difficult.  We’ve all had to suppress the urge to tell a judge precisely what we think of the quality of reasoning in a decision we are arguing against.  Most of us succeed.  A few of us fail, with spectacular results. Professor Eugene Volokh has an excellent example of the latter category at The Volokh Conspiracy.    An appellate...

An attorney’s duty to maintain the confidentiality of client secrets is central to the attorney-client relationship, and mandated by every jurisdiction’s code of attorney conduct.  Occasionally an attorney concludes, incorrectly, that some “higher good” justifies releasing the confidential information of a client or former client.  The attorney may think that, but the law will rarely agree. Retired United States District Judge Gary Taylor, acting as an arbitrator, has ordered attorney Dimitrios P. Biller to pay Toyota Motor Corp. – for which he used to be in-house counsel — $2.5...

Welcome to Shovelling Smoke, the civil litigation blog of Brown White & Newhouse LLP, a civil litigation and criminal defense boutique firm in Los Angeles, California. Shovelling Smoke will cover developments of interest to civil litigators.