Litigation Section

1.         What are the key functions of a federal magistrate judge? Magistrate judges in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California are authorized to perform the full range of duties provided for magistrate judges under Title 28 U.S.C § 636. The court encourages civil litigants to consent to the jurisdiction of magistrate judges for all purposes up to and including bench or jury trial and final judgment, with any appeal directly to the Ninth Circuit Court… Read more

California’s winter lockdown is easing, and California’s federal courts are again reopening.  Practitioners and judges wondering about the future can look to the Southern District of California for guidance on potential next steps.  The Southern District designed a Covid-19 safety protocol that allowed the District to safely hold many in-person jury trials during a three-month period in 2020 and to again resume safe in-person jury trials on March 8, 2021. We sat down with Judge Anthony J. Battaglia—who led the… Read more

April 2021 Central District of California Covid Updates Covid-19 Update: Effective March 22, 2021, all Courthouses of the Central District of California are open to persons with court business and subject to all posted restrictions. Hearings in emergency civil matters and criminal matters may proceed in court at the discretion of the assigned judge. Hearings in other matters will continue to proceed by video and telephonic conference.  There are still no civil or criminal jury trials, but the Court has… Read more

A monthly publication of the Litigation Section of the California Lawyers Association. Read more

A monthly publication of the Litigation Section of the California Lawyers Association. Read more

The Jury Instructions Committee of the California Lawyers Association’s Litigation Section has reviewed the proposed revisions to civil jury instructions (CACI 21-01) and appreciates the opportunity to submit these comments. Read more

A virtual series presented by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues and the Department of African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley with the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Read more

A virtual series presented by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues and the Department of African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley with the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Read more

A virtual series presented by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues and the Department of African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley with the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Read more

Central District of California Covid Updates Jury trials are suspended and all courthouses are closed to the public except for hearings on certain criminal duty matters. Other hearings in criminal matters may proceed in court when the defendant does not consent to appear by video or telephone. Appearances in civil cases will proceed by telephone or videoconference.  Individual judges, at their discretion, may offer bench trials in civil cases by video conference in lieu of postponement. Court News On December… Read more