Litigation
Cal. Litig. VOLUME 38, ISSUE 1, MAY 2025
Content
- Ai In Criminal Cases In 2025: Use of Facial Recognition Technology
- Caci 1805: a Comedy of Errors
- California Gun Violence Restraining Order Blueprint
- Chair's Column
- How To Improve (And Not Blow!) Your Chances For Obtaining Appellate Writ Relief
- Inside This Issue
- Interview With Magistrate Judge Michelle M. Pettit
- Litigating Sex Trafficking Cases Involving Online Platforms: Strategies and Considerations For Advocacy On Behalf of Survivors
- Motions In Limine: the Right To a Fair Trial
- PAST SECTION CHAIRS & EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
- Psych Records In Emotional Distress Cases: Where We Went Wrong and How To Fix It
- SECTION OFFICERS & EDITORIAL BOARD
- Settlement Conferences V. Mediations: a Distinction Without a Purpose?
- Success In Trial: the Work After the Courtroom Closes
- Table of Contents
- Editor's Foreword: a Supra-eme Farewell
EDITOR’S FOREWORD: A SUPRA-EME FAREWELL
Written by Benjamin G. Shatz
Editor-in-Chief
Here at California Litigation we take all facets of litigation in California seriously. This includes using the California Style Manual, typically called the Yellowbook, based on the yellow cover of its early editions. The current edition has a gold and red cover, leaving younger lawyers baffled about why anyone would call it the Yellowbook. Another baffling, indeed, downright frustrating, aspect of the Yellowbook is that it hasn’t been updated in a quarter-century now. The current "4th edition" was published in 2000 (after earlier versions in 1942, 1961, 1977, 1986). The tiny segment of the practicing bar that cares deeply about this—mostly appellate lawyers—has been crying out for a new edition for decades now.
Yet as things stand, the 4th edition sets the rules of the road—at least for California’s appellate courts, who are bound to follow it to the letter by the State’s Reporter of Decisions. Appellate practitioners are well-advised to do so too, though there’s arguably more wiggle room there. And then there’s this publication, which has always striven to meet the highest standards of editorial work, including adherence to the Yellowbook’s California style. One of our unsung Editorial Board Members, Yali Giacoman, works at the Court of Appeal and so has unbeatable Yellowbooking skills.
I’ve run out of patience, however. The Yellowbook has many wise rules, such as writing "Cal.App.5th" without spaces—an approach even the Bluebook now allows. But there are also simply too many unnecessary and annoying conventions in the Yellowbook that really have to be discarded. One of those is the use of "supra" for shortform citations. This requirement adds unnecessary words to legal prose. Short citations are obvious on their face and don’t need supra to point this out. And shorter is better. Cutting words saves on ink and paper. So, exercising my powers as editor-in-chief, I have eliminated all instances of supra in this issue. I bet you won’t miss them!